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Old Southwark and its people. 




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"SOUTHWARICKSURRY'ICIRCA 1542. 

DucHYOF Lancaster Records, Maps & Plans^N°74. 

Facsimiled and reduced from the original in the Record Office. 

^J^ocrr^ '■'FE END OF PREFACE. 



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OLD SOUTHWARK 



AND ITS 



PEOPLE, 



BY 

WILLIAM ^NDLE, F.R.C.S., 

Honorary Surgeon to the British and Foreign Training College, 
■Borough Road, and at one time Scholar there ; 

formerly, 

SURGEON TO THE POOR, 

AND MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH, 

ST. GEORGE -THE-MARTYR, SOUTHWARK. 




Printed WV^s For 



And Sold by W. DREWETT, 43, High Street, Southwark. 

1878. 

[A// rights rcsci'jcd. ] 
A" 



Pi.?,o^'tvf\ 



I. 

THIS BOOK TO 

TWO RICHARDS, 

VERY DEAR TO ME : 

MY SON *IN QUEENSLAND, 

MY NEPHEW IN BURMAH. 



" I have a story ready for our need. 
If ye will hear it, though perchance it is 
That many things therein are writ amiss, 
This part forgotten, that part grown too great. 
For these things, too, are in the hands of fate.'" 

Morris's ' Earthly Paradise. 
{March.) 



PREFACE. 



The best explanatory introduction I can give to this venture is to 
reprint here as much as may be necessary of a circular first 
issued by me, foreshadowing my hopes and intentions as to a quasi- 
history of the old Borough of Southwark. 

Notice as to the intended issue of a Paper or Papers relating to 
Old Southwark. 

I have long intended, and indeed have been somewhat urged, to 
show at least a specimen of the work I have for some time had in 
hand. It is therefore proposed to issue very shortly a paper of 
some extent, to be named ' Old Southwark and its People.' I have 
been so fortunate as to find in the Record Office, through my friend 
Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, a sketch or rough map of Southwark, or of 
the greater part of it, very suitable to a first essay in this direc- 
tion. This map or plan may have been intended for official uses 
only — what we might call an office copy. In the Appendix to the 
thirtieth Report of the Deputy -Keeper of the Public Records, p. 39, 
the map is listed among plans which were, it is said, chiefly made 
for the purpose of elucidating claims of parties in disputes pending 
in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster. The particular disputes 
for which this plan was made I have not as yet been able to find. 

The rudest possible indications of places, most of them known, 
and many of them remarkable, appear in this sketch of, say, 1542. 
The names, in the quaint hand and spelling of the time, have been 
traced for me by Mr. Ashbee, a skilled professional hand. I 
affixed them to the map (a tracing of my own) and have had the 
whole reduced to the size of the book to which it stands as text. It 
is trustworthy, very fairly exact, and will serve well as the basis or 
text for this account of ^Old Southwark. It will moreover enable 

I 



VI 



PREFACE. 



me to introduce details promising to be very interesting to those 
who like such matters, and it will make them very well acquainted 
with Old Southwark. To take only six of the inscriptions as speci- 
mens of what the sketch or map contains, here are Bartholburch 
(Battle Bridge of Tooley Street), The Tabete (Tabard), Marye 
Madelene Church (Bermondsey), Synte Toulus Church (St. 
Olave's), The Maner Place (Brandon's Palace). A boundary in 
three or four places, thus indicated— Hyer endeth the lyberte off 
the mayre and beghinneth the the {_dc in one] kyng, which 
explains itself. One more— Dedmeplace (Deadman's Place), the 
earliest notice in Cunningham being 1604. 

The venture is in the nature of an experiment — that is, whether 
now the people of this utilitarian age^ feel a sufficient interest in 
historical, biographical, and topographical sketches connected 
with the past of this very old borough ; and whether I possess the 
qualities needful to enable me to set the matter forth in a suffi- 
ciendy attractive form. In the midst of a busy practice it has 
always been to me a labour of love, as well as a relief, to gather 
up as they came in my way any literary or pictorial illustrations 
of the Borough in which I have lived and worked since 1815, and 
this pleasure or the results of it I should like to pass on to others. 
As for myself, I will say at once that, although I cannot undertake 
to satisfy the fastidiously learned, I may hope to do better with 
the intelligent reader who seeks pleasure and information together, 
and who will be content to moderate his expectations. Nothing 
known to be fictitious is allowed to appear as true, otherwise than 
as a literary illustration. This is dwelt upon because in preparing 
such a work it is a wie qua non to be trustworthy and, as nearly as 
possible, exact. 

When we consider how ancient a place our Borough is — how 
many most noted people have lived and acted in it — what stirring 
events have taken place in Southwark, whether we are locally con- 
nected with the place or not, we cannot but feel somewhat interested 



' Which has made it possible lo skirt \\ ith a gigantic and ugly thundering iron 
trough one of the loveliest of the old churches, St. Saviour's, Southwark. And 
this trough might, as I heard was intended, so easily have gone further south. 
Outer (or ultra) barbarians ! as the Chinese might, with show of reason, call us. 



PREFACE. vii 

in its past history. Southwark has generally felt and reflected, 
earlier than most other places, the working- and moving toward 
necessary changes. Moreover, some of the very master men and 
masterpieces of early English literature were either first seen 
among us or connected closely with us ; let me name, for example, 
Gower and Chaucer. The earliest complete English Bible printed 
in England was printed here in iS37. 'Justification by Faith 
Only,' by William Tyndale, was printed here in 1536. Many 
another fine specimen of early printing came from the presses 
of " St. Thomas's Hospitale," and of other places " in Southwarke." 
It appears to me, therefore, that our Borough has been somewhat 
overlooked. The plays of Shakespeare were, many of them — may 
I say most of them ? — written for the Globe, on the Bankside. 
Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Ben Jonson, and a throng of 
others of the time of Elizabeth and James, were among us, some- 
times on the Bank, sometimes in our debtors' prisons.^ Further, 
to show what subjects of interest there are closely connected with 
Old Southwark, many of which might each fill a paper, 
and perhaps may, let me name a few. — The records yet in 
existence of the parishes of St. Saviour, St. Olave, St. George, St. 
Mary Magdalen, and St. Thomas. — The Brandons of Southwark, 
one of whom, Duke Charles, had to wife Mary, the Bonne Saur of 
Henry VIIL, and had his palace opposite St. George's Church (the 
Maner Place of our map), with its park behind. — Bankside, its 
theatres and bear-gardens, with its houses of convenience carefully 
regulated and licensed by the Bishops of Winchester, with the 
Clink, the Cage, the Cucking Stool, and the Whipping Post, their 
complementary adjuncts, all close at hand in case of need. — The 
illustrious roughs, for instance, Marlowe, Greene, and Chettle, who 
wrote or acted for the Bank Theatres. — Chaucer, and the Tabard. 
— Bekkets Spyttell (the hospital of St. Thomas k Becket). — South- 
wark Fair and Hogarth. — Bermondsey Abbey, with Sir Thomas 
Pope, who procured it, and the many great people, kings, queens, 
and nobles, who lived there. — The old prisons. Clink, White Lyon, 
Marshalsea, Bench, Counter, which drew within their walls the 
best and the worst of people. — Sir John Fastolf, whose almost 

* See Henslowe's Diary for many instances. 

b 2 



viii PREFACE. 

"Royal Palace " was in Southwark, and who, to some extent at 
least, served as the butt or model of the Shakespearian character. — 
St. George's Fields, with its great gatherings of kings and queens, 
and of commoner folk for musters, its butts and archery, its cruel 
executions, its dissolute places of resort, and much else ; — for all 
this and more there is abundance of excellent material ready to my 
hand, which is ever, and too fast, increasing. 

The subject of each paper, if there should be more than one, 
will be, as far as possible, complete in itself ; each will have an 
appropriate and not hackneyed illustration — one or more. Should 
the work simply repay the actual outlay — profit being neither 
desired nor refused — it will be continued. If otherwise, it will 
very properly stop at this first issue. 

A second and more definite announcement was made, as 
follows : — " Old Southwark and its People. To be shortly pub- 
lished, in one volume, complete in itself, illustrated. Price to 
subscribers, nine shillings." The conditional promise of fifty large- 
paper copies could not be carried out on account of expense. One 
size of quasi-large paper has therefore^been adopted. Notice of 
the publication was sent to many friends and inhabitants of South- 
wark, with this result — that about 260 copies are ordered, more 
than I expected, but not nearly enough to defray the actual 
outlay. 

It was suggested to me to extend the first notice, and to explain 
more particularly the intended scope and contents of the book. 
Well, the subject of it is the first known map of Southwark, of the 
time immediately after the surrender of St. Mary Overie's Priory, 
of Bermondsey Abbey, and of St. Thomas's Hospital, and after the 
uniting of St. Margaret's parish with that of St. Mary Magdalen 
Overy to form St. Saviour's. The scope of the book is an account 
of early Southwark. Then follow particulars, which, as they are 
comprised in the book now in the hands of the reader, need not 
be reprinted here. 

The illustrations are— i. The map or plan, 1542. It will be 
understood that the actual words of the map are in the writing of 
the period, and that some modern words are added by me to make 
matters more clear. — 2. The Southwark part of Norden's map, 
Vanden Keere, i S93, by favour of Mr. Furnivall for the purposes 



PREFACE. ix 

of this book. — 3. Plan of St. Saviour's, ciiiefly after Tiler, 1762, 
with which is adapted a plan of conventual remains, after Carlos 
and Dollman, in situ, and an elevation of the same from the ' Anti- 
quarian Itinerary.' — 4. Portrait of Queen Elizabeth, in illustration 
of those set up in the churches at the time, from the Fhilobiblon 
Broadsheets and Ballads; Huth collection. A very faithful copy 
of the original. — S- The Cucking Stool, in use for scolds and 
olhers, from Mr. Halliwell's Broadsides. Probably this is a South- 
wark picture, free as for a broadside, of a cucking stool known 
to have been in use by and in the stream behind Winchester 
House. — 6. The locality of the stream, with an indication of the 
cucking stool, from the ' Countreyman's Guide,' a map of the 
time of the Commonwealth, 1653. — 7- The Lock Bridge, at the 
end of Kent Street, now underground, and forming part of the 
sewer. — 8. The locality of the Lock Hospital or Leprosery, and 
the Bridge just noted. — 9. The armorial device of the Borough of 
Southwark is at the end of the book.^ 

I must remark that the same words will be found now and 
then to be diversely spelt. They are so in the originals; in 
fact, the diversity in spelling is very common, sometimes to be 
found even in the same sentence. I have not affected to make 
them uniform in this book, which is intended to reflect as much 
as is reasonable of the old times. 

I am afraid that some too exact repetitions will be met with ; 
generally, the repetition is perhaps justified in this — that it is to 
some extent needful in most of the instances to make each episode 
more clear. I cannot defend myself further, and shall submit 
with melancholy pleasure to adverse criticism. 

I am under much obligation for kindly help — first of all to 
Mr. J. O. Halliwell Phillipps, without whose most liberal literary 
aid this book, whatever its merit may or may not be, could not 
have appeared ; to Mr. Furnivall, for valuable advice and help ; 
to my two Cambridge friends, Mr. Flather, of Emmanuel, and Mr. 
Northcott, of St. John's, who have given themselves much trouble 



' All the copies I have seen of this device, although in the main the same, vary 
a little in minute points, I have not seen a copy authoritatively exact, nor do I 
know of one. 



X PREFACE. 

in looking over my proofs ; to the Vestry of St. Saviour's, for the 
very great facilities they have, through their Vestry Clerk, 
Mr. Diggles, always given me for the inspection of their most 
valuable papers ; to Mr. Selby, so often ready with real help in 
my researches at the Record OfiSce ; to Mr. Overall and his second 
in command, for help cheerfully afforded at all times. 

Per contra, I am very sorry that the authorities of Magdalene 
College, Cambridge, could not find it in their hearts to let me 
gather some of the rich fruit which now, alas ! lies almost buried in 
the " Bibliotheca Pepysiana," — which collection is, I believe, really 
entrusted to the college authorities for a reasonable public use. 

WILLIAM RENDLE. 
Treverbyn, Forest Hill, 1878. 



NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS. 



COPIES 



Mr. Abbott, 141, High Street, Borough i 

„ Aishton, Newcomen's School, King Street, Borough . . .1 

Messrs. Anderson & Cattley, Soap Works, Great Suffolk Street . . 3 

Mr. Arber, F.S.A., Southgate i 

„ Ashby, 42, High Street, Borough 2 

Mr. Baker, F.S.A., II, Sackville Street i 

Messrs. Barclay & Perkins, Park Street i 

Mr. Barkby, British and Foreign School Society, Borough Road . i 

Dr. Bateson, 116, St. George's Road, Southwark r 

Mr. Bayles, 81, Newington Causeway i 

„ Bayley, 42, Newington Causeway i 

„ Bear, 128, Great Suffolk Street i 

Rev. Mr. Benson, M.A., St. Saviour's, Town Hall Chambers . . i 

Col. Beresford, M. P., 75, Victoria Street i. 

Mr. Bevan, A. H., Anchor Brewery, Park Street i 

„ Bevington, J. B., Merle Wood, and St. Thomas's Street . . 6 

Major Bevington, The Neckinger Works 2 

Mr. Billings, Surveyor, Guy's Hospital i 

„ Birt, D., Vestry Clerk, St. George's, Southwark, 10, Blessington 

Road, Lee i 

„ Birt, D., junr.. Town Hall Chambers, Borough . . . . i 

„ Blanch (History of Camberwell), 55, Denman Road, Peckham . i 

„ Boulden, Warden, St. Saviour's, 31, Union Street, Borough . i 

„ Boutcher, E., 9, Leather Market, Bermondsey . . . . i 

Mrs. Breillat, Blackman Street i 

British and Foreign School Society (Mr. Bourne) . ... 3 

Miss Broster, Canterbury Road, Catford i 

Mr. Brown, Percy, Davis's Wharf, Tooley Street . . . . i 

„ Burney, 27, High Street, Borough i 



NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS. 



Dr. Carpenter, 169, Kennington Park Road. 

Mrs. Cattel!, Canterbury Road, Catford 

Rev. Mr. Chancellor, M.A., Westwood House College, Forest Hill 

Mr. Chappell, F.S.A., Oatlands 

Mrs. Chatterton, The Hawthorns, Clapham Road 
Dr. Chester (LL.D.), 124, Blue Anchor Road 

City Library, Guildhall 

Dr. Clapton, St. Thomas's Street 

Mr. Cock, F.R.C.S., Dean Street, St. Thomas's Street 

,, Coleman, High Street, Borough 

„ Coleman, Trevanger, Hamlet Road, Upper Norwood . 

„ Collier, Gothic Hill, Stamford Hall, and 15, New Broad Street 

„ Cooper, Eshholt Royd, West Croydon .... 
Miss Corner, A. E., Longton Grove Villa, Weston-super-Mare 

„ Corner, M. L., Longton Grove Villa, Weston-super-Mare 
Dr. Cornwell, Purbrook, Sydenham Hill 
Mr. Cosens, 27, Queen's Gate, Kensington 
Mrs. Cox, WynelT Road, Forest Hill . 
Mr. Creak, 17, Clapham Road 

„ Creak, King's Ai-ms, Horslydown . 

„ Crookenden, "jo, Bankside 

„ Crossley, Beaufort Street, Chelsea 
Rev. Mr. Curling, M.A., St. Saviour's . 



Mr. 



Davis, C, New Weston Street, Bermondsey 

Davis, R., New Weston Street, Bermondsey 

Dawson, Queen's Head, Borough . 

Day, Vestry Hall, Borough Road . 

Diggles, Vestry Clerk, St. Saviour's, Hibernia Chambers, London 

Bridge 

Dodson, Penge 

DoUman, 9, Adam Street, Adelphi 
Dowman, 29, Shakespeare Street, Ardwick, 
Drapper, 16, Union Street, Borough 
Drewett, F., Church Street, St. Saviour's 
Drewett, W., 43, High Street, Borough 
Dunn, Andrew, 38, Southwark Street . 
Dunn, W., 37, Newington Causeway 



Mr. Eastwood, 79, Holland Road, Kensington 
Mrs. Ellis, Worth, Sussex .... 



Manchester 



NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS. 



XlU 



Dr. Fagge, II, St. Thomas's Street 

Mr. Falconer, Judge of County Court, Monmouthshire (Usk) 

]\Iiss Farley, 22, Bolton Gardens 

Dr. Farr, F.R.S., Somerset House 

Mrs. Faulkner, Mayo Road, Forest Hill 

Mr. Field, North Frith, Forest Hill 

„ Fisher, 31, Maze Pond 

„ Fitch, J. G., one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, 5, 
caster Terrace, Regent's Park ...... 

„ Fitch, J. P., Phoenix Wharf, Clink Street, Southwark . 

„ Forster, F.R.C.S., 29, Upper Grosvenor Street . 

,, Foucard, 162, Tulse Hill, and Three Crown Square, Boroug 

„ Franklin, Architect, Adelaide Chambers, London Bridge 

,, Furnivall, M.A., 3, St. George's Square, Primrose Hill 



Mr. Gainsford, High Sti-eet, Borough 

„ Gallant, Horse Shoe, Stone's End 

„ Gardner, South Eastern Bank, Tooley Street 

„ Gill, loi. High Street, Boroligh 

„ Gooch, 113, Nevvington Causeway 
Dr. Goodhart, 27, Weymouth Street, Portland Place 
Mr. Goodwin, Great Guildford Street . 
Miss Goudge, 7, Kidbrooke Park Road, Blackheath 
Mr. Green, J., Calvert's Buildings, Southwark 

„ Gregory, High Street, Borough 

„ Griffith, 164, High Street, Borough 

„ Grut, 9, King Street, Borough 
Mrs. Gwilt, Moonbeam Villa, i, The Grove, New Wimbledon 

Mr. Hawkins, 126, London Road, Southwark 
„ Hemmerde, London and Westminster Bank, Southwark 
„ Heslop, Clerk, St. Olave's, 86, Queen Elizabeth Street, Horsly- 

down 

„ Hillstead, 25, High Street, Borough 

„ Hilton, J., F.R.S., 10, New Broad Street 

„ Hilton, R. C, Paragon, New Kent Road 

„ Hilton, T., Great Suffolk Street . 

„ Hocken, Polperro, Cornwall . 

„ HoUiday, Jno., Alderley Edge, Manchester 

„ Howse, F.R.C.S., 10, St. Thomas's Street 

„ Hunt, 42, Southwark Bridge Road 



COPIES 
I 



Lan- 



XIV 



NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS. 



Mrs. Ingle, 6, Morden Road, Blackheath Park 



COPIES 

I 



Mr. Jackson, W. G., Distillery, Dockhead . 

„ Jarman, New College, Southsea 

„ Jarvis, J. W., 19, Charles Square, Hoxton 

„ Jarvis, M., 19, Charles Square, Hoxton 

„ Jones, Clerk, St. Saviour's Guardians . 

„ Jones, Geo., 97, High Street, Borough . 

„ Joy, 164, Clapham Road 



Mr. Kedgley, Hibernia Chambers, London Bridge 
„ Kennard, 177, Old Kent Road 



Mr. Larkin, M.R.C.S., Trinity Square . 

„ Ledger, Potter's Fields, Horslydown 

„ Legg, Cyrus, Metropolitan Board of Works, and 
mondsey Street 

„ Lewin, 11, The Terrace, Chapel Place, Long Lane 

„ Lewin, junr., 11, The Terrace, Chapel Place, Long Lane 

„ Locke, John, M.P., 63, Eaton Place 
London Library, Mr. Harrison, Sec, 12, St. James's Square 
Mr. Lowe, Great Dover Street .... 



Mr. Macgillivray (Macnaught, Robertson's), Bank End 
„ Malthouse, 118, Walworth Road .... 
„ Marsland, Surveyor, Three Crown Square . 
„ Millar, Churchwarden, St. George's, Newington Causeway 
„ Mitson, Chairman of Guardians, St. Saviour's Union 

Dr. Moxon, Guy's Hospital, 6, Finsbury Circus . 

Mr. Narraway, Sunderland Lodge, Forest Hill . 
„ Neal, Mark Brown's Wharf, Tooley Street . 
„ Newsom, i. South Hill, Forest Hill 
„ Northoott, Dorcas Terrace, Kensington 



Mr. Oakey, J., Westminster Bridge Road , 
„ Overall, Principal Librarian, Guildhall , 



Mr. Paine, C, g, Lewes Crescent, Kemp Town, Brighton 
„ Palmer, W., Market Street, Bermondsey 
„ Paul], D., 20, St. George's Road .... 



192, 



Ber- 



NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS. XV 

COPIES 

Rev. Mr. Pearson, M.A., Ardwick Lodge, Beverley Road, Hull . . i 

Sir H. W. Peek, Bart., M.P., Wimbledon i 

Mr. Perkins, A. F., Anchor Brewery, Park Street . . . . i 

„ Philcox, 141, Bermondsey Street I 

„ Phillipps, J. O. Halliwell, F.R.S., HoUingbury Copse, Brighton . 3 

„ Phillips, B., 280, Kennington Park Road i 

„ Phillips, H. L., 18, Kennington Park Road I 

„ Pocock, A., Metropolitan Board of Works, and 235, Southwark 

Bridge Road 6 

„ Pope, M., Belle Vue, Thurlow Hill, Lower Norwood . . .1 

Miss Putley, 48, Trinity Square I 

Mr. Rabbits, W. H., The Hall, Dulwich 2 

„ Rabbits, W. T., High Field, Forest Hill 2 

Mrs. Rabbits, E., The Hall, Dulwich i 

Miss Rendle, Polperro, Cornwall i 

Mr. Rendle, Richard, F.R.C.S., Brisbane 3 

„ Rendle, Frank i 

„ Rider, F., Outram Road, Croydon i 

„ Rider, S. C, 143, Great Suffolk Street i 

„ Rider, T. F., 181, Union Street i 

„ Robertson, James (Lectures on Southwark), Bank End . . i 

„ Robins, Churchwarden, St. George's, 228, Old Kent Road . . i 

„ Rockley, 155, High Street, Borough i 

„ Rogers, E. Dresser, Hanover Park, Peckham . . . . i 

„ Rose, J. W., Old Hall, Reedham i 

„ Rowett, R., Polperro, Cornwall I 

„ Rowett, R., Rangoon, Burmah 3 

Rev. Mr. Sach, M.A., Lee Lane Farm, near Bagshot . . . . i 

Mr. Saunders, J. Ebenezer, 9, Finsbury Circus 2 

„ Scriven, J. B., Anchor Brewery, Park Street . . . . i 

„ Searle, Anchor Brewery, Park Street . . . . . i 
„ Sells, 13, Morland Road, Croydon . . . ... .2 

„ Shaw, 35, Green Street, Pocock Street i 

„ Shears, W., 25, Bankside i 

„ Shelley, 65, Blackman Street 2 

„ Simpson, 9, Three Crown Square i 

Rev. Mr. Sinclair, London School Board, and Alfred Street Hall, 

Bermondsey Street i 

Mr. Sinden, 14, Newington Causeway 3 



XVI NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

COPIES 

Mr. Smith, M.R.C.S., 40, Newington Causeway 2 

Miss Smith, 8, Norfolk Terrace, Brighton 

Mr. Snell, 78, Falmouth Road 

„ Stevens, 191, Lower Road, Rotherhithe 

Dr. Tanner, 118, Newington Causeway 

Miss Taylor, Helen, School Board, and 10, Albert Mansions, Vic- 
toria Street i 

Mr. Taylor, C, Repository, i, St. George's Road .... 

„ Taylor, W., 59, King Street, Borough 

Dr. Taylor, Fredk., Guy's Hospital, and 15, St. Thomas's Street 

„ Thompson, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 
Mr. Tolhurst, 60, Tooley Street 

„ Treadwell, Great Dover Street 

Mr. Walford, Cornelius, 86, Belsize Gardens 

„ Walker, J. H., The Grove, Guildford Street . 

„ Wallace, Jas., 160, Long Lane, Bermondsey 

„ Walters, 22, Ladbroke Grove Road, Netting Hill. 

,, Walton, C, Manor House, East Acton, and 22, Newington Butts 
Sir Sidney Waterlow, Bart, M.P., Fairscat, Highgate 
Mr. White, J., 4, Barkham Terrace, St. George's .... 

„ Wilcocks, H. S., Stoke Cottage, Stoke, Devonport 
Dr. Wilks, F.R.S., 77, Grosvenor Street . .... 
Mr. Wingham, 90, Borough Road 

„ Winkley, M., 4, Southwark Street . .... 

Mr. Youngman, 416, Old Kent Road i 



PLAN OF SOUTHWARK, 1542. 



First in order naturally comes an explanation of the map or plan 
which has so opportunely turned up for our purpose, and which 
faces the title. 

Many maps dealing largely with early Southwark have come 
down to us. It is easy to see that fancy has dealt somewhat freely 
with the seventeenth century maps of Hollar and others; at the same 
time it must be said that truth, with a difference, underlies them 
all. The same may be said of the pictorial map of Van den 
Wyngrerde, dated 1543, now in the Bodleian. 

Our plan from the Record Office,^ the text for this book upon 
Old Southwark and its People, although limited and very roughly 
drawn — in fact, nothing more than a rude skeleton of a map — is, 
to my mind, so far as it goes, worth them all as to matter-of-fact 
authenticity. It gives a fair idea of the lines of the old Borough, 
and the approximate sites of those old places, the names of which 
so ring in our ears, and which were of local importance in 1542. 
The map will also serve as some sort of test by which to judge 
other and more formal maps. 

There are, of course, good early maps, — for instance, that of 
Agas, 1560,^ — Braun's, 1572,' — a rough one in the Sloane MS., 
1588, — Vanden Keere's, that is, Norden's, 1593,^ — and Visscher's, 

' Duchy of Lancaster Records, Maps, and Plans ; dimensions, 334 in. by 24 in. 
Mr. Selby, of the Record Office, to whom I am much indebted for help, thinks 
that a part of the plan, a southern portion, has been cut off. 

' This map has just been edited by my excellent friend, Mr. Overall, the 
Librarian of the City Library. 

' Braun's, indeed all of these maps, of which there were various editions, must 
be compared and intelligently examined, especially the later impressions, before 
implicitly receiving them, 

A beautiful copy of this map is given in the ' Illustrations of the Life of Shake- 
speare,' by Mr. J. O. Halliwell Phillipps ; another is given with Harrison, edited 



xviii PLAN OF SOUTHWARK, IS42. 

1616. These appear to be fairly trustworthy, and they mutually 
illustrate each other. One or other or all contain names of places 
and features of the locality familiar to us — so with a little pleasant 
study we can build up the old town for ourselves, can see it very 
much as it was in the old days, and can, with a natural fancy, see 
the people whose names are household words to us moving to and 
fro in our streets. 

No date is affixed to the map in the^Record Office, but it contains 
enough of internal evidence to make its date clear. The Act 
uniting the parishes of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalen 
Overy was passed 32 Hen. VIII., 1S40-41. From this time the 
church of the united parishes was named St. Saviour's, as in the 
map, which must therefore have been sketched after 1541. Sir 
Thomas Pope's name appears on the site of Bermondsey Abbey, 
This abbey was dissolved, and became the property of Sir Robert 
Southwell, in 1541, who the same year passed it on to Sir Thomas 
Pope. From this and some other internal evidence I venture to fix 
the date of it about 1542, or very soon after. 

The modern words on the map are placed there to make some 
matters clearer, that is, as to places of note not actually named on 
the original map, but which were in existence about 1542 — before 
or after. I have also affixed figures against the old names, — what 
now follows will show why this was done. 

I. Baptys House. 2. Fowler or Fowle. 3. Beere or Bear Alley. 
4, 5. Gates to the Close, afterwards Montague Close. 6. Pepper 
Alley. 7. The Church door, the west door of St. Saviour's. 
8. St. Saviour's Church, g, 10. The West and East Chain Gates 
of St. Saviour's Churchyard. 11. Wytwent House (?). 12. The 
GreenDragon. 13. The Bull's Head. 14. "Winchester House. 15. I 
am at a loss here ; it may be Waverley or Naverley House, a better 
authority says Norwyche House. 16. The way to the Bankside. 
17, 19. Foul Lane. 18. West Lane. 20. Cross's" Brewhouse. 

by Mr. Furnivall, for the New Shakspere Society. The Graphic newspaper 
published last year a copy from the same block. Mr. Wheatley has an admirable 
monograph upon Norden and his map of London, some eighteen pages, in the 
edition of Harrison — N. S. S. 

* John Crosse, a leading man of St. Margaret's parish, 1534. Locally appointed 
with others to oversee as to church goods, St. Saviour's, 1548-1552. 



PLAN OF SOUTHWARK, 1 542. xix 

21. Froget's^ House. 22. The Court House. 23. The Market 
Place. 24. The Pillory and Cage. 25. St. Olave's Church. 
26. The Brust House (Brewhouse or Bridgehouse). 27. The 
Ram's Head. 28. Here endeth the liberty of the Mayor and 
beginneth the King's. 29. Smith's Alley. 30. The Berghene or 
Petty Burgundy. 31. Pillory and Cage. 32. Battle Bridge. 
33. Bermondsey Cross. 34. Glen Alley. 35. Here endeth the 
Mayor and here beginneth the King. 36. Probably the Boar's 
Head. 37. Probably the Black Swan, 38. The Hospital Church 
Door (St. Thomas). 39. The Gate of St. Thomas's Hospital 
40. I am quite uncertain as to the name of this evidently impor- 
tant building ; possibly it may be meant for the Hospital itself, or 
perhaps for the noble Inn of the Prior of Lewes. 41. The King's 
Head. 42. The White Hart. 43. The George. 44. The Tabard. 
45. Probably the Inn of the Abbot of Hyde. 46. The Crowned or 
Cross Keys. 47. The Christopher. 48. The Spur. 49. The Horse 
Head or Nag's Head. 50. The Marshalsea Prison. 51. Probably 
the Mermaid. 52. The Blue Maid End.'' 53. Probably the Half 
Moon. 54. The King's Bench Prison.^ 55. Probably the White 
Lyon Prison (Golden Lyon Court and Angel Alley, in Stow's Map, 
1720). 56. St. George's Church. 57. The Well. 58. The Bull 
Ring. 59. The Sink. 60. Bostock House,'' &c. 61. Kent Street. 
62. Jan Jonck House (Yngellis : probably Jan Jonck was naturalized 
or Anglicized?). 63. Long Lane. 64-64. Dycks (Dikes). 65. Sir 
Thomas Pope. 66. St. Mary Magdalen Church, Bermondsey, 
67. Here endeth the King's liberty. 68. Mr. Goodyere's House, 
69. A Bridge. 70. Park Gate {i.e., of Suffolk Park). 71, 74, 
77. The Liberty of the Manor {i.e.,Q>i Brandon's or Suffolk Manor). 
72. The Park (Brandon's). 73. The Manor Place (Brandon's 
Palace). 75. The Clement. 76. The Goat. 78. The Salutacion. 
79. Deadman's Place. 80. The Park Gate. 

^ Rychard Frogat or Frogatt, Churchwarden, St. Saviour's, 1548-9. 

' Endyt : Danish form of the word. For instance, Mile End, and the like. 

' The words Lirtate Barmese mean, I thinl<, that this was the prison of Lirtate 
(Liberty) — a scribe's mistake —and Barmese (of Bermondsey). 

° A liberty is named, but I cannot decipher the word. Mr. Selby thinks the 
map has been at this part cut. East of " Bostock House " was known as the Great 
Liberty Manor, " the King's " possibly, when he seized it. 



SOUTHWARK 

FROM 

NORDEN'S MAP, i593- 



norden's map of southwark 



Along the City marg-in of the Thames are the following, named and placed as 



Leicester 
howsc 



The 
temple 



White 
friei s 



Bryde 
we I 



Black 
friei s 



Baynardes 
castle 



Paules 
wharfe 



Qiiene 
hythe 



Three 
cranes 




I have been favoured by Mr. Fumivall with a cast of this SoUTHVifARK 
Part of Norden's Map, 1593. Although much of it lies outside my imme- 
diate subjects, it is an important addition to the book. Vanden Keere, whose 
name is on the map, engraved it after a drawing by John Norden, the ablest 
surveyor of his day. It is, says Mr. Halliwell, extremely curious and valuable, 
and gives a fair idea of the locality about the time Shakespeare was at the Globe. 
Passing along the map from west to east is Lambeth marsh, and next an irregular 
square plot of ground, — the old Paris Garden Manor, approximately the parish 
of Christcliurch, so constituted by Act of Parliament in 1671. The lane bounding 
this, east, leads to Paris Garden Lane and Stairs, and about 1,380 feet south from 
near Bridewell, close to the lane, was the Old Play-house, the Paris Garden 
Theatre, probably the Swan. Near to this Theatre many actors and others of 
the Shakespeare time lived ; among the rest, Henslowe, AUeyn, Cooke, Kemp, 
Lowin, and Sly. Close to the river margin, marked Banckes syde, was the 
Falcon Inn, Stairs, and Ferry ; and near Bankside, easterly, the Stews-bank, 
about which were houses held by loose persons under a sort of jurisdiction of the 
Lord of the Manor — the Bishop of Winchester. East of the lane commences the 
Clink, or Bishop's Liberty, comprising also Winchester Park and grounds, and 
extending to Winchester House, — all this was once part of the parish of St. 
Margaret's, Southwark. In this liberty were the Theatres which are interwoven 
with our literary history, notably of the times of Elizabeth, James, and Charles ; 
to which we might go, as in a dream, in reality all the same, and see Shakespeare, 
Burbage, and all their satellites, — Henslowe, Alleyn, and all their satellites, — 
Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones, Spenser, Beaumont and Fletcher, Marlowe, and many 
anolher only a little less renowned ; and coming and going the Kings and Queens 
of the lime, — the Ambassadors, one of them personally conducted by Sir Walter 
Raleigh, to see the sights on the Bankside. 



AND A COMMENT UPON IT. 



^ Norden's complete map; that is, exactly opposite the corresponding- places south. 



The 

^"stUliarde 



S Kalherynes 




The Bear Garden, otherwise the Hope, was situate due south about i,ooo feci, 
in a direct line from Stew Lane Stairs, Queen Hithe west. — The Rose, Norden's 
"play howse," just built, due south about 940 feet from Queen Hithe east. — The 
Globe, not built until 1599, i.e., after the map, due south about 1,200 feet from 
the north-west corner of the site of Southwark Bridge. The measurements, 
which are, of course, approximations, are all taken from the river-line City side. 
Further east is the stream, immediately west of Winchester grounds, leading up 
to the river and to the Clink prison ; on this was the cucking stool, which the 
Bishop employed for the punishment of scolds and others. Next was Winchester 
House, Grounds, and Gardens (20). On this same spot were Rochester House, 
Waverley House, which, with Winchester House, were all residences of eccle- 
siastics of these names. Close to the river and to London Bridge are Montague 
Close, spoils of the Priory of St. Mary Overy, which fell to the Brownes or 
Montagues, — St. Mary Overy, now St. Saviour's, the scene of many a noted 
sermon and cruel judgment. The word Southwarke marks Long Southwark in 
the High Street, in which is seen the Pillory. East of the Bridge is S. Towleyes, 
St. Olave's Church. The Abbot of St. Augustine's, and the Abbot of Battle at 
Battlebridge, have their inns by the river, with the Bridge House, Brew-house, 
or Brust-house, between them and the Abbot's gardens, the Maze opposite. 
The Abbot of Lewes has his inn south, opposite the church ; near to which were 
the Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth and the buiying-ground appropriated 
for the use of Flemish refugees, and near at hand a sort of liberty called Little 
Burgundy. Bermondsey Street (22) is the way to the Abbey, to which many a- 
pilgrim went to be cured of disease, or female pilgrim to be cured of celibacy by 
the aid of St. Saviour at the Abbey, as the Paston Letters lell us. 



HEADINGS OF CONTENTS. 



Early Appearance of Southwark. Dikes and Ditches 

SOUTHWARK BEFORE THE MayOR .... 

The Lords of early Southwark .... 

London Bridge, Long Southwark, and St. Margaret's Hill 
The Inns of Southwark ..... 

St. George's Church ...... 

The Prisons of Southwark ..... 

St. Margaret's Church, St. Margaret's Hill 

St. Thomas's Hospital ..... 

Explanation of Tiler's Plan of the Church of St. Saviour 
The Church of St. Mary Overy, afterwards St. Saviour's 
The Neighbourhood and Associations of St. Saviour's 

(Winchester House, &c.) 
Deadman's Place .... 
Montague Close .... 

St. Olave's Church .... 
Smit's Alley and Walnut Tree Alley 
Grammar Schools, St. Olave's and St. Saviour's 
The Flemish Burial-ground . 
Goodchepe's Key 
Berghene, i.e., Petty Burgundy 
The Inn and Gardens of the Abbot 

and Batxlebridge 
Barmese Cross 
Bermondsey Street 
The Church of St. Mary Magdalen, 
Sir Thomas Pope and Bermondsey 
Kent Street . 



OF Battle, the Maze, 



Bermondsey 



1 
3 
5 

12 

33 

68 

91 
no 

159 

196 
224 
227 
238 
244 

2SI 
262 
267 
271 

272 
277 
278 
282 
292 
30s 



OLD SOUTHWARK. 



EARLY APPEARANCE OF SOUTHWARK.— 
DIKES AND DITCHES. 

We who see Southwark in 1878 with its widely spread acreage 
of dwellings, shops, and warehouses, with its population of 
I40,0(X) people, can scarcely realize its early condition, when it 
was a forest of trees, " so dark in Paris Garden that the eyes of a 
lynx or a cat were needed to find a man,"^ — when the broom men 
of Kent Street gathered their broom near at hand, in Sayes Court 
Wood, — when dwellings were almost confined to the neighbour- 
hood of the bridge and to the main central thoroughfare,^ and 
when Royal visitors at Suffolk House hunted in the park between 
St. George's Fields and the river. Then the ground was inter- 
sected with open streams and ditches crossed by smaller or larger 
bridges, of which there were many scores in Southwark. 

Gerard in his 'Herball,' 1S97, tells of "the hedgehog grasse 
growing in watery ditches by Paris Garden Bridge and in St. 
George's Fields; of the frogbit found floating in almost every 
pool ; of the crowfoot found in lakes and slowly running or stand- 
ing waters, mostly in St. George's Fields ; of the bitter-sweet in 
the ditch by the house of the Earl of Sussex in Bermondsey, in 

' Cal. Dom. 1578. 

" This condition of things continued down to nearly my own time. In 1818 
a house was built for my father in the midst of a field within eight minutes' walk 
of London Bridge. 

E 



2 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

a court which is full of trees by the farm-house in the Grange." 
The whole place was mostly a swamp or a marsh, kept above 
water by extreme care of the river banks, which, uncared for, 
would have led, as it did more than once, to the temporary 
drowning of the lands of Southwark and Bermondsey. Diseases 
consequent upon a moist and foetid atmosphere were common and 
deadly. Diseases such as dysenteries, agues, plague fevers, and 
sweating sickness, abounded — now with the causes gone or almost 
unknown here in England. The word " dyck " appears in the map 
twice (64, 64) ; the words would have been all over it had it been 
the purpose of the clerk to represent every feature of the district. 

In my own collection, and in that of Guildhall, are certain parch- 
ments, "Sewars Presentments" of 1620 and 1640. They give 
with tolerable exactness the condition of the sewars ; in other 
words, the ditches of the time, now represented by channels 
carefully covered over, but which I have seen, within the last thirty 
or forty years, as open ditches, running between or behind the 
houses. The bridges in the map (32, 81) crossed such streams, 
and, as I have said, there were scores of them. 15 18. The Court 
of Sewars levy 4d. per acre within one level ; the Queen, the Duke 
of Suffolk, and others liable are noted by name.^ 1620. A Jury 
meet at St. Margaret's Hall in Southwark, and " super sacra- 
mentum," and on their oathes say, e.g., that Copley and his 
tenants in the Maze should amend two poles and a half of the 
bancke of the Sewar there,— the Sewar from Fostall Place,^ west 
side of Stonie street, is to be cast and clensed,"'— the Sewar by 
Rochester house " is plagued with a filthy house of ofRce." 
Another Session of Sewars, held in the same place in 1640, pre- 
sents — obstructions to the sewar in Deadman's place; hogs, a 

very frequent presentment, are kept within forty feet of the 
stream ; every one along St. George's fields. Leg of Mutton fields, 
Prince's meadow, &c., is to cleanse his part of the stream,— in the 

" 'Letters and Papers,' Henry VIII. (Brewer), Vol. II., p. 2. 

* Sir John Fastolf, the Shaksperean Falstaffe (1st Part, Henry VI.), had his 
palace in Stoney Lane. 

' Note, now and always, "" are omitted where the old spelling, or a 
quotation, is sufficiently obvious without them— i-. ^., sewar for sewer ; maner or 
mannor for manor ; dike for dyke, &c. 



SOUTHWARK BEFORE THE MAYOR. 3 

Maze a house of office over the sewar must be removed, — in 
Crucifix lane, Horslydown lane, hogs are kept ; so that, to use a 
phrase of the time, the Sewar is annoyed, — Gallie wall against 
Lowsie mead needs repair ; in 1 599, there was a lowsie meade's 
stile in the Grange. A cross ditch belonging to the* cordwayners 
and a black ditch in St. Olave's are noted. The expences or rates 
levied are \2d. per acre in the levels of Duffield sluice, a 
Bermondsey sewar; 2.?. per acre for whiting ground; lorf. upon 
every tenant in the level,— "whoso refuses shall within fourteen 
days forfeit as much more in nomine poenae." Any one may 
form a fair notion of the course of these ancient ditches and water- 
ways by studying a modern map of sewars ; these streams vary 
so little from age to age. It will be observed in these sewar 
presentments that the contents of the " Houses of office," Trade 
refuse, "Lay stalls," "Sea cole ashes and dust," and, in short, 
any and every thing found its way into the ready watercourse, 
which was then the only drain for a swampy district. The banks 
of the sewars when artificially made up, or in any way used, are 
known as wharfs, e.g., "Tenements on wharf of sewar, Tenter 
Alley in the Maze"; "the company of Cordwayners are to wharfe 
with piles, and boarde the banks of the cross ditch in Mayde 
Lane"; "the wharf of Duffield Sluce in Bermondsey." 

St. Margaret's Hall, in which the sewar dignitaries met, was 
no doubt the same as the Court-house of the map (22), which had 
probably been part of the suppressed church of St. Margaret, and 
was the precursor of the modern Town Hall. 

SOUTHWARK BEFORE THE MAYOR. 
Thrice in the map is repeated (28, 35, 67), with slight variations, 
"Here endeth the Mayor and here beginneth the King," showing 
the boundaries of jurisdiction at the time. At the time, I say, because 
from frequent forfeitures and grants the boundaries were continu- 
ally shifting. Whenever any disputes or difficulties arose in 
Southwark the King was always found to be lord paramount; certain 
grants were however continually made, of rights only just short 
of the King's latent and original right, to those whom for the time 
the King delighted to honour. The liberty of the Mayor is seen 
to be bordering the Thames and about London Bridge; the King's 

B 2 



4 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

liberty nearly all the remainder ; for just now the dissolution of 
the monasteries had thrown the lands of the Priory of St. Mary 
Overy and of Bermondsey Abbey into the King's hands, the 
latter in 1536. The liberty of the Maner (map 71, 74, 77) had 
belonged to Brandon, who married the King's sister ; in 1535 this 
also became the King's. Private acts were passed for the purpose, 
and the lands were afterwards granted away again. Winchester 
House (map 14), and the Bishop of Winchester's liberty, always 
known as the Clink, were not interfered with. The Clink is not seen 
here. In a claim made by the Mayor and citizens of London in 1566 
it is recited " that John Stretford, Archbishop of Canterbury, was 
seized in fee of the Borough, Lordship, and Maner of Southwark, 
by letters patent, i S April, 3 Edward IV. ; and was entitled to 
all fines and forfeitures, &c., arising within the same and the liber- 
ties thereof ; that one Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, afterwards, in the time of the late King Henry VIII., 
surrendered the said Borough, Lordship, &c. (by Deed enrolled), 
into the hands of his said late Majesty, King Henry VIII., by 
virtue of which surrender the said King became seized in fee," &c.' 
It will be interesting to know a little more of the state of SOUTH- 
WARK BEFORE THE MAYOR, and how he came over the 
river to have rule south of it. There is much evidence of a most 
interesting kind, from Roman remains found in Southwark, of 
extensive Roman occupation and burial, and of an important 
settlement here. Remains have also been found, which, by remote 
inference, might be supposed to point to lake dwellings ages 
before the Roman occupation. These do not now concern us ; but 
Saxon and Norman Southwark may well demand a few words, 
which will be a fitting introduction to those which come after. 
Thanks, chiefly to Mr. Corner," this design is easily carried out. 
After the first William had conquered England, he caused a record 
of his gains to be made, i. e., in what is called the Domesday 
Book, a marvel of brevity and comprehensiveness. In this survey 
Southwark is thus noted: — "The Bishop (of Baieux) has in 

" 'Hilarii Prcecepta,' 9 Eliz., Rotulo 1. ; Ut: Halliwell-Phillipps's papere. 
' Our late most excellent antiquaiian, in ' Archa?ologia, ' Vols. XXIII., 
XXV., and XXXVIII, 



THE LORDS OF EARLY SOIJTHWARK. J 

Southwark one monastery and one harbour. King Edward 
held it on the day he died. Whoever had the church held it of » 
the King. From the profits of the harbour, where ships were 
moored, the King had two parts. Earl Godwin the third. The 
men of Sudwerc testify that in the time of King Edward no one 
received toll of the strand on the bank of the river except the 
King ; and if any committed forfeiture, and was then sued, his fine 
went to the King." Before riverside Southwark and chiefly St. 
Olave's became the liberty of the Mayor, it was the vill or burgh 
of Southwark. Here grew up the south outwork of the city, and 
hence our name of Suthweorce, which some modern folk affect to 
call Siitherk. Those who would like to know in how many 
different ways the name may be spelled, may see, in Ralph Lind- 
say's little book, 'Etymology of Southwark,' two or three score 
specimens, from Sudurvirke to Sawthwarke and Southwark. As 
time goes on, we have to note many liberties and manors — the 
manor of the Maze ; the liberty of my Lord of Barmsey, i. e., of 
the Prior or Abbot of Bermondsey ; of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury; and Brandon's palace and park, which was the Suffolk Manor. 
The extent and the names of them changed with the owners, who, 
with the times, the people, and their forms of religion, were often 
changing. Keeping this fact in mind, we shall not be so dis- 
tracted, as we should otherwise be, by difficulties of identification. 
Earl Godwin of the Doomsday Book, the most powerful of 
English nobles at the time, was the local lord of Southwark, and 
had his mansion here — a sort of king-maker in his way. The 
king so made, the Confessor, rewarded the strong man by 
marrying his daughter. 

THE LORDS OF EARLY SOUTHWARK. 

Probably the connexion of the Godwins with Southwark, they 
being the great enemies of the Conqueror, may account for the 
special resistance he met with here, and for the fact that he cap- 
tured and destroyed it by fire in 1066. After this, Odo, the half- 
brother of the Conqueror, was the lord, as the Doomsday Book 
shows, and after him William de Warren. In Odo's rebellion, 

5 The Confessor. 



6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Warren stood by the Conqueror, and was in consequence created 
Earl of Surrey, and became lord of Southwark, and had his great 
town house here, probably Godwin's house before he had it. The 
Warrens appear continually in this earlier time, sometimes in 
connexion with considerable benefactions to the church, — to St, 
Olave's, to St. Mary Overy, and to Bermondsey. This early lord 
of Southwark, William de Warren, one of the loyal young vassels 
of the Conqueror, was rewarded with some three hundred manors, 
as his share of the spoil after the invasion — evidently a favourite, 
in that he became the husband of Gundred, the daughter, or 
step-daughter, or daughter of the wife of the Conqueror." In his 
charter to the Priory of Lewes she is named "matris uxoris mese."^ 
Gundred was Countess of Warren ; her husband was created Earl 
of Surrey after her death ; and the wife of her son, Isabella de 
Vermandois, was Countess of Warren and Surrey. Taking all 
this together, it is no stretch of imagination to fancy we see the 
Conqueror visiting his daughter Gundred at the house of the lord 
of Southwark in Tooley Street. In fact, Southwark was a very aristo- 
cratic neighbourhood ; abbots and princes, lords and knights, had 
their great houses here for many a century after this time. The 
Warrens were great patrons of the Cluniacs ; one of the family 
gave material help, in 1098, to their, monastery at Bermondsey. 
In the charter to Lewes, William de Warren relates how he set 
out with his wife, Gundred, to Kome, and were so hospitably enter- 
tained at the Abbey of Clugni, in France, that they introduced this 
ascetic and then reforming class of monks into England, first at 
Lewes ; a great priory of the same Order being soon after estab- 
lished at Bermondsey. The Abbot of Lewes had his house in 
Southwark, close to the site of Earl Warren's, as we upon good 
evidence believe. Although a good benefactor of the church, this 
lord was not in the favour of all monks. In the register of Ely it is 
recorded that Earl William violently withheld certain lands ; that, 
admonished, he still held them ; that in consequence he not only 
died miserably, but that the Abbot actually heard the devil 

" For much of this I am indebted to 'The Conqueror and His Companions,' 
by J. R. Planche. 

' So Planche says ; Freeman accepts the idea ; and the charter is above 
suspicion. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CITY JURISDICTION. / 

carrying away his soul, and the unfortunate man's cry, " Lord, 
have mercy upon me ! " By way of corroboration, the Earl's wife 
sent (saying he was dead at the very time) a hundred shillings to 
the monastery, which were refused upon the reasonable plea that 
money could not be taken from a damned soul. This is however 
only a monkish legend, one simple objection to its truth being that 
the wife had been already three years dead before the hundred 
shillings were sent to the angry monks. When Southwark was 
vested in the Earls of Warren and Surrey,'' the Earl's bailiff and 
the King'sJiad a common box for the toll collected. The King's 
bailiff had the box and the Earl's bailiff the keys. At each 
division of the toll, even in Earl Godwin's time, the King had two- 
thirds and the Earl one-third. 

The very limited jurisdiction of the Mayors was in after-time 
known as the Gildable Manor,' but in 1281 it belonged to 
E^rl Warren, whose town house was here. In a deed of the 
period the Earl releases Nicholas, Abbot of St. Augustine in 
Canterbury, from suit to his court in Southwark for a messuage 
and houses situate upon the Thames bank between the Bridge 
House and the church of St. Olave's,* and it so remained, — the town 
of Southwark being vested in the De Warrens until the death of 
John Plantagenet, in 1347. In 1325, or 1327, commenced a quasi 
jurisdiction of the citizens of London in Southwark. They petitioned 
the King, stating that certain persons who in the City committed 
manslaughters, robberies, and divers other felonies, privily departed 
into the village of Southwark, and were openly received there, 
and so could not be apprehended and brought to justice. The 
citizens besought the King, for the more effectual bridling the 
naughtiness of the said malefactors, to grant them the said village 
for ever at a rent to be paid into the exchequer. The petition was 

' Temp. Edward I., in quo warranto, the knights summoned say upon their 
oaths that the Earl and his ancestors had these Uberties. 

' The Gildable Manor, says Comer, comprised the ancient town of Southwark, 
extending from the dock, west of St. Mary Overies, to what is now Hay's Wharf 
and nearly to St. Margaret's Hill, but except at the west the map gives the 
boundaries with more precision ; still, as Corner probably did not see this map, 
he is singularly correct. 

* Stow Thoms's ed., p. 155. 



8 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

granted.' In many ways this grant proved ineffectual ; the juris- 
diction so given was but partial. The early grant did not prevent 
the Earl, the lord of the Gildable Liberty, that is, of old South- 
wark, from appointing his own bailiff in his own liberty. 

Opposite the church of St. Olave's there was a gate-house and a 
cage, one of them probably the prison of this limited Southwark ; 
with this the City had nothing to do. In 1397 the Earl of Arundel, 
who was now lord of Southwark, was attainted ; the bailiff who 
had been appointed by the Earl was now appointed by the King. 
All this proves the exceedingly limited power of the City in South- 
wark. The people of Southwark evidently had no affection for the 
City ; they are charged with openly receiving its enemies. Further 
the land south of the river was densely wooded; was swampy 
and full of ditches; St. George's Fields were handy; there was a 
ready passage across the river — the silent highway — at all times ; 
the houses were few, and on the outskirts widely distributed ; in 
fact, the escape of malefactors was easy, and their concealment 
after also easy ; moreover the Southwark people were quite 
willing to let them escape, perhaps to aid them. The jurisdiction 
granted thus early is shown in that part of the map called the 
liberty of the Mayor, and even to that extent it was not complete. 
It could not be therefore effectual for its purpose. In 1377 the 
citizens endeavoured to strengthen their hold of Southwark. They 
besought the King to confirm their liberties, and to give them 
power to punish misdemeanours there, and that the King's 
marshal should not intermeddle with the part which was Guild- 
able. This was refused : " the King could not do it without wrong 
to others." Whether the Marshalsey Prison was as yet in South- 
wark I cannot tell ; but all the same the jurisdiction of the King 
by his marshal was paramount within some twelve miles of the 
King's palace, and there were no doubt private interests ; there 
always were. Further, as the Southwark people objected, they no 
doubt used all their influence against the citizens. In the second year 
of Edward IV., 1462, the citizens were more successful. They had 
now discovered divers doubts, opinions, ambiguities, controversies, 
and dissensions, for want of clear declaration and expression in 

'' A copy of the charter is in Norlhouck's 'London.' 



THE CITV and SOUTHWARK. 9 

the charter of Edward III. A new charter was now granted ; the 
City was empowered to take the goods and chattels of fugitives 
outlawed, goods disclaimed and found in the town, " as fully and 
as wholly as if the town were in our hands." They had the assize 
of bread, wine, beer, and ale, and all other victuals saleable in the 
town; and they had power to punish and correct malfeasing 
dealers ; they had the issue of writs, and might take thieves and 
place them for safe keeping in their own gaol of Newgate. A fair, 
Our Lady Fair of Southwark, was granted in 1462, and the city 
dignitaries opened it with much ceremony in the September of 
each year. 

The Mayor, commonalty, and citizens now had, or thought they 
had, "in the town aforesaid, all liberties, rights, and privileges 
which the King would have had if the said town had remained in 
his hands, paying only to him 10/. for the ancient farm rent of the 
same, and without disturbance by the King or his heirs or officers, 
saving, however, the rights, liberties, and franchises belonging to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and of other persons there."" 
This was in 1462. The rights of the Archbishop had about the 
time of our map passed away ; Cranmer had sold them to the 
King. We read therefore instead of the Archbishop, " here 
beginneth the King." That is to say, some manors, or parts of 
manors (the result of purchase, as in the case of the Archbishop ; 
of exchange, as with Brandon ; of forfeiture, as in the case of the 
religious houses), nearly all of Southwark had come into the hands 
of the King. The citizens were not asleep. The Bishop's Manor 
and the Great Liberty Manor belonged to the King. The citizens 
petitioned for a grant of them, but without success. 

The map reveals the status in quo just after the dissolution, the 
Mayor in his corner by the river, and with no further hold on 
Southwark as yet. But in ISSO, 4 Edward VL, the citizens were 
more successful. I use Mr. Corner's words.' The King in con_ 

^ Comer, 'Statement,' 1836. 

' 'Statement of the Inhabitants,' 1836, p. 8. See copy of this charter in 
Maitland's ' London, ' Vol. I., p. 242, ed. 1775, which recites names of places, inns, 
&c., very interesting to the local student, as, for instance, Moulter's Close, Broad 
Gates, the Antelope, the Swan, Mennaid, Helmet, Horsehead, the Gleyne, the 
Rose, the Cock, Lamb, Ball, Flower de Luce, Tipping in the Hole, White Hart, 



lO OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

sideration of 647/. 2s. id. granted to the Mayor, Commonalty, and 
Citizens of the City of London a messuagfe next the King's mansion, 
late belonging to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in Southwark, 
and much other land and houses which the King (Henry VIII.) 
had purchased of the Duke ; Southwark Place, the Maner Place, 
over against St. George's Church, — the King's park in Southwark 
excepted, — with other exceptions chiefly relating to prisons and 
individual rights. Further this King granted to the Corporation , 
the Borough, Lordship, and Manor of Southwark, together with 
all fines, issues, forfeitures, felons' goods, &c., arising and to arise 
within the same, the liberties and precincts thereof, to hold and 
enjoy the same in as full and ample a manner as the said King 
Edward VI., King Henry VIII., or any Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, 
&c., ever held or enjoyed the same, &c. In the ninth year of Elizabeth 
a formal claim had been made, and the Attorney-General, party 
on behalf of Crown, " doth not deny or say anything in bar of the 
said claim, but confesseth the same," and the judgment of the 
Court followed for the City.* Directly after the grant of Edward VI., 
the citizens proceeded to act upon it by appointing the surgeon. Sir 
John Ayliffe, as Alderman within the " Burroughe of Suthwerke," 
which is noted the week after as the " Brydge Warde Without, 
albeyt that thytherto there had not been any suche warde or 
alderman within the citie." The citizens now feel charged with 
"the rule, survey, and governance, not only of the inhabitants 
within the towne and burroughe of Suthwerke, but of people 
repairing thither, and of all liberties, francheses, and pryveleges 
granted by the King." " Notwithstanding the grants and charters 
look at first sight strong enough, there appear on closer inspec- 
tion too many exceptions, to make the governance of the city 
secure or agreeable, especially over a people more inclined to be 
adverse than otherwise, and in the face of the supreme govern- 
ments so constantly varying in affection for the City. 



Blue Mead, an extensive plot known as St. George's Dunghill, and divers parcels 
in the field called St, George's Field. Many of these names will turn up from 
time to time. 

' 'Hilarii Praecepta,' 9 Eliz. ; from Mr. H.-iUiwell-Phillipps's notes. 
" 'Records of Common Council,' cited by Corner, p. 9. 



DECLINE OF THE CITY JURISDICTION. II 

I shall go no further this way than to cite some points of an 
important judgment — 1663 or 1664 — which qualify' very much the 
power of the City over Soutliwark.' The point was, whether the 
City had power by virtue of charter to hold separate sessions 
of the peace in Southwark independently of the justices of the 
county of Surrey. The judgment was against the City ; and in 
like disputes since that time, notedly that in connexion with the 
Dog and Duck in 1787 — the King against Sainsbury,^ the principle 
of the adverse judgment has been confirmed ; as a consequence, — 
the hold of the City has little by little become relaxed, and its 
power over the Borough of Southwark is, as nearly as possible, at 
this moment a nullity. 

The judgment recites the terms of the charter of Edward VI., 
the power of the City to choose two coroners, the Mayor to be 
clerk of the market in the Burgh ; that any Mayor, or Alderman 
who had been Mayor, and the Recorder, shall be Justices, to do 
and execute justice in the county of Surrey, that is, in Southwark, 
"in accordance with the laws and statutes of the kingdom of 
England." The question raised was, "Are the inhabitants of 
Southwark subject to the Lord Mayor, &c., or to the Surrey 
Justices, or to both ? " The answer given was that " the City had 
no government other than a Warden of a Company or Alderman 
of a Ward had, and not as Justices of the Peace." " Soe it is very 
unlikely that the ancient Borough, having Burgesses chosen in 
Surrey by indenture to the Sheriff of Surrey to y° parliament, 
should be reputed to be suburbs to, and a subject member of, the 
City, being as ancient as London itself." They further say, "as 
the City had grant of fines, it would be repugnant to reason for 
them to be judges and set fines in their own case." The very 
decided judgment is further elaborated, but I need not to go on 
with it, notwithstanding, v/ere there space, the whole of it is well 
worth reprinting. 

' "The case concerning the Borough ot Southwark between the Citty of 
London and County of Surrey," coming out of Orders of Council, 1662 and 1663, 
and referred for decision to the two Lord Chief Justices and the Lord Chief 
Baron, or any two of them, November 18, 1663. Harleian MSS., 6166, p. 292. 

' ' Morgan and Concanen, 'St. Saviour's, 1 795) p. 27, et seq. 



12 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

LONDON BRIDGE, LONG SOUTHWARK, AND 
ST. MARGARET'S HILL. 

A small part only of London Bridge is shown in our plan, in- 
tended no doubt roughly to represent that part of the bridge which 
was in Southwark. So late as i73S,^ a list is given of some thirty- 
three of the inhabitants of houses on London Bridge belonging to 
the parish of St. Olave Southwark, and the amount of poor-rate 
due from each, assessed by Cornelius Herbert and James Brooke, 
ancient inhabitants. It is noted that the whole of the bridge, in- 
cluding the houses on each side of the bridge foot on the South- 
wark side, as far as Tooley Street on the east and Pepper Alley 
on the west of the High Street, was part of Bridge Ward, wMin 
the City of London. The fact of part of undoubted Southwark 
being included in the Bridge Ward Within, adds another proof as 
to the confused relations of the City and Southwark, and the shift- 
ing authority of one over the other. Notwithstanding the words 
on the plan, " Here endeth the Mayor," showing the City jurisdic- 
tion over all the immediate approaches south of the bridge, it 
will be seen in another part of this work that the King had been 
sole lord, and was more or less always paramount. " Bridge Ward 
Within,^ is so called of London Bridge, which bridge is a principle 
part of that ward, and beginneth at the stulps on the south end by 
Southwark. All the bridge is replenished on both sides with 
large, fair, beautiful buildings, inhabited for the most part by rich 
merchants and other wealthy citizens, chiefly Mercers and Haber- 
dashers." It is noted under the head of St. Thomas's Hospital that 
Edward Osborne was apprentice to the Lord Mayor, Sir William 
Hewet, on London Bridge ; and that he leaped from a window into 
the Thames and rescued his master's child, who became by-and-by 
his wife. Thomson ^ tells of many shop bills and tokens of traders 
living on the bridge ; one, of the sign of the Breeches and Glove, 
facing Tooley Street, announcing that " all sorts of leather breeches, 
leather gloves, &c., were sold there at reasonable rates, wholesale 
and retail." Another, a tobacco paper with a coarse picture of a 

' O. R. Corner, Notes and Quci-ics, 1859, 1st series, vol. viii. p. 142, 

■" Stow, ' Survey,' ed. 1720. 

'' 'London Bridge,' ed. 1827, p. 379. 



SHOPS UrON LONDON BRIDGE. 1 3 

negro smoking, and others packing tobacco ; and beneath, " John 
Winkley, Tobacconist, near y° Bridge, In the Burrough, South- 
wark." Of copper tokens" one is shown with a bear, " Abraham 
Browne, at Bridg foot, Southwark, His Halfpeny." Others, " at y° 
Lyon on London Bridge " ; "at the Sugar loaf on London Bridge," 
&c. Numerous books are published from the bridge. Some by 
Coclcer the arithmetician, of St. George's, "at the Looking 
Glass " ; " The Life and Sudden Death of old John Overs,"' printed 
for T. Harris, at the Looking Glass, on London Bridge. The 
Three Bibles, the Angel, y° Anchor and Crown near the square 
on London Bridge, and many more, are mentioned. Many views 
show houses on the bridge down to their demolition in 1758. One 
penny token has " London Bridge, the first of stone compleated 
1209. The houses on the Bridge taken down and the bridge re- 
paired 1758"; on the edge, "I promise to pay on demand the 
bearer one penny." It is noted, 1757, that the workmen found, 
on pulling down the houses, three pots of silver and gold money 
of the time of Queen Elizabeth. In 1697 an Act was passed for 
widening the street at the south end of the bridge, the corporation 
having already nearly rebuilt the houses and widened it ; it had, 
in fact, been widened from 12 to 20 feet. Can we now realize the 
idea of widening London Bridge from 12 to 20 feet ? The cross of St. 
Paul's had been cast in Southwark, but, from the narrowness of the 
way above, and the small height of the arches below, it had to be" 
conveyed another way.* With a width of forty feet spoken of, it 
seems hard to understand the joust, or passage of arms, in 1 390, 
between Sir David Lindsay and Lord Wells on the bridge, in which 
the English champion was worsted and nearly killed. 

The extent of Southwark on the bridge itself is shown by the 
dotted boundary line north of St. Olave's, in Stow's map of the 
parish. The drawbridge, which was our extreme north boundary, 

^ 'London Bridge,' ed. 1827, p. 355. 

' The mythical ferryman of St. Mary Overy. 

* Thomson's ' London Bridge ' is here generally cited, and is an almost inex- 
haustible work on the subject. Admirable, nay, perfect as it is, the balance sheet 
which is bound up with the author's own copy, in my possession, is a warning to 
local antiquarian writers. It shows so sad a deficit that I could not disregard the 
absolute need of publishing my more humble work by subscription, 



14 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

was, as its name implied, movable for the passage of vessels ;• that 
is to say, it had been so to the end of the seventeenth century, 
then it got out of repair.' It was the seventh of the twenty arches 
of the bridge, from the Southwark end. One lock, the third, was 
called the Rock Lock. The so-called rock was visible at low 
water, and made the passage dangerous ; it was probably a por- 
tion of the bridge which fell in 1437, and, not removed, became 
encrusted and like a rock. The usual passages under the old 
bridge were anything but safe, hence a proverb that London 
Bridge was made for wise men to go over and fools to go under. 
A foreigner, in 1663, narrates how the passengers had to leave 
their boat, cross to the other side, and re-embark. The struggling 
people in the water, and boats overset, which appear in Norden's 
map of the bridge in 1624, and the burials of drowned people at 
St. Olave's, tell the tale. In my own recollection, we who had to 
pass the bridge in a ship's boat disembarked, and an experienced 
waterman, " shooter of the bridge," took the boat through and 
received us again. And in quire another sense over the bridge 
was better. A good lesson might have come out of the well-known 
fact that the plague mostly spared the bridge people, could they 
have only read in this the saving value of fresh air and plenty of 
it. It was unfortunately the custom then more than now to attri- 
bute such calamities to God's wrath rather than to the neglect of 
His obvious laws ; and the religious teachers of the time fostered 
the pernicious notion. 

Still nearer to Southwark was the Bridge Gate, the scene of 
many a bloody conflict ; it was often garnished above with the heads 
of offenders; ten, twenty at a time. Here, in 1263, Simon de 
Montfort met the King, Henry III., and, after a conflict, gained the 
City, notwithstanding the gates had been locked by a king's friend, 
and the keys thrown into the Thames. In 147 1, the Kentish 
mariners under the bastard Fauconbridge, burned the gates and 
some fourteen houses on the bridge.' The care of the gates was 
entrusted to the Brethren of St. Catherine, near the Tower, and 
the trust was made known by the King, Henry III., in 1265, to the 
Brethren and Chaplains ministering in the chapel pf St. Thomas, 

" Strype's Stow, b. i., p. 58. 
' Stow, 1720, vol. I, p. 22. 



THE BRIDGE GATE (TRAITORS' GATE) SOUTHWARK. 1 5 

upon London Bridge, and to the other inhabitants there. This 
chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas h Becket of Canterbury, and 
called St. Thomas of the Bridge, was situate in the tenth pier, and 
consisted of a crypt, or lower chapel, and an upper chapel. It is 
beyond my scope to note this further, but four very clear pictures 
of this handsome little Gothic building may be seen in Thomson.' 
The Bridge Gate, says Stow, is called of London Bridge, where 
it standeth. This, he says, was one of the four first and principal 
gates of the city, and was long before the Conquest, when stood 
there a bridge of timber. It is the seventh gate mentioned by 
Fitzstephen. It was a weak structure, and often repaired. Divers 
citizens had, from time to time, given large sums of money for 
these repairs, as for instance, Robert Large, once mayor, lOO 
marks ; Stephen Forster, 20/. ; Sir John Crosby, 100/. In 1437, 
this gate with the tower upon it fell suddenly into the river, with 
two of the arches. Stow remarks that "no man perished in body, 
which was a great worke of God." Out of this ruin came the 
obstruction which gave the name to the Rock Lock. 

It had been of old the custom to place the heads of traitors, or of 
persons convicted of that which from time to time was called 
treason, in public places, and notably over gates. Until 1577 the 
north Bridge Gate was chiefly so used, but that gate becoming 
ruinous, the heads were taken down and set up on the gate at the 
Southwark end of the bridge, which was henceforth known as the 
Traitors' Gate. The north gate was not at any time exclusively so 
used. In 1416 an ordinance is put forth that the head of a traitor 
is to be set upon London Bridge, at the place called the Draw 
brugge ; * and Harrison says, 1576,'' " the tower, or the drawbridge, 
upon London Bridge is in April taken down, being in great decay ; 
and soon after made a pleasant dwelling house ; and whereas the 
heads of such as were executed for treason were wont to be placed 
upon this tower, they were now removed and fixed over the gate 
which leadeth from Southwark into the City." Hentzner in 1598 
counted above thirty heads upon the bridge. In the rare or unique 

" ' Chronicles of London Bridge, ' pp. 84-87. 
' Riley, ' Memorials of London, ' p. 640. 
■* New Shakspere Society, 2nd part, p. Ivi. 



l6 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

copy of Norden's map, 1600, and in Vischer's, 1616, heads are 
displayed over the Southwark Gate. Some of the sufferers may be 
noticed— James, Earl of Desmond, a principal leader of the Irish 
Rebellion, temp. Elizabeth, was taken, secretly wandering in 
Ireland; his head was cut off and sent to London, and put on 
London Bridge as that of an arch rebel.' The Desmond family 
is supposed to have had a house in Southwark, and to have given 
the name to Deadman's, otherwise Desmond, Place.* The Romanists 
supplied a sad list for the Traitors' Gate ; among others John 
Nelson, in 1578, for den)ing the Queen's supremacy, and Father 
Garnet, the principal of the English Jesuits, in 1606, for complicity 
in the Gunpowder Plot. In 1594 Elizabeth's ministers are informed 
that Irishmen, Papists, and others of Her Majesty's enemies are 
giving much trouble, and that they abide for the most part about 
Southwark.'' The last head exhibited here was that of Venner, 
the fifth monarchy zealot, in 1662. 

In mitigation of the Papist charges against Elizabeth we must 
not forget the dangerous provocation of the Bull of Pius V., 
denouncing and "dethroning" her, a copy of which was found 
hanging at the Bishop of London's palace gate one day in 1570,' 
and the continual prophecy and talk of assassination. 

About the time of removing the decaying fragments of the gate, 
several alterations were effected, and the Lord Mayor soon laid 
the stone of another building. In 1579 this second Southwark 
tower and gate were finished, chiefly with wood and ornamental 
work, and the width of the carriage-way was extended to forty 
feet, probably at certain parts only. In 1725 a fire, which began 
in Tooley Street and extended over the two arches of the bridge to 
the gate, so damaged it that it was taken down in 1728, and a new 
one built, with two posterns for passengers, instead of one as it had 
been before. This last of the Southwark gates was taken down in 
1760 and the materials sold. About this time Axe and Bottle Yard 
gave place to King Street, and soon after — about 1 768 — its opposite 

= .Stow, 'Annals,' 13th December, 1583. 

" It could not have been from this Desmond as stated in Strype's Stow App. 2 ; 
the n.ime being in our map of 1542, i.e., as an older name. 
'Rolls Series, Dom. 1594, 
' Hallam. 



FIRES AND CONFLICTS ON LONDON BRIDGE. 1 7 

neighbour, the Greyhound Inn Yard, was transformed into Union 
Street. The bridge gate materials were used in effecting the former 
alterations; indeed, one relic, the arms which had adorned the 
gate, form now the sign of the King's Arms in the narrow way of 
King Street. These arms, as they were first placed, may be seen 
in pictures of the Southwark aspect of the Bridge Gate. The three 
successive gates are shown in Thomson's ' London Bridge ' — the 
first, p. 339; the second, p. 343 ; the last, from the frontispieee of 
Maitland's 'London,' with the coat of arms and the sun-dial high at 
the top, at p. 487 ; and Thomson is so trustworthy that the curious 
need look no further. 

The old bridge was often troubled with fires ; it was of course 
the usual thing in the times of wooden houses, overhanging and 
close together. In 11 36 the part towards Southwark was so 
destroyed. In 12 13 a most lamentable fire destroyed much of the 
borough, and catching the bridge at either end, the people upon it 
were hemmed in and perished, altogether in this fire to the 
number of about 3,000. Other fires are recorded in 1632-3; in 
1665, chiefly at the City end. 

The Southwark part of the bridge has been the especial scene 
of many great conflicts. Often the defeated people were pro- 
nounced to be traitors and rebels, and were put to death with much 
cruelty ; yet very often, as appears by later light, these were but 
conflicts of might with right, springing from well-grounded dis- 
content. Southwark always appeared as the sturdy, or at least 
half-willing, entertainer of the rebellious folk who came to the 
bridge gate by way of enforcing some desirable reform. In Wat 
Tyler's time, 1381, Southwark was becoming impatient of City 
rule, and this feeling had always more or less effect in the passive 
if not active welcome given to those who were marching upon the 
City or on the Government, through Southwark. The effect of the 
laws upon the labour class was in Wat Tyler's time most oppres- 
sive. Then people were forbidden to quit their parishes to seek 
employment, and so for the most part work, wages, master, and 
locality were fixed for them, not, of course, to the advantage of the 
worker. Now arose an indiscriminate hatred of the oppressor, 
and the innocent as well as the guilty suffered on reprisal. In one 
of the many risings the people killed lawyers and clergy as they 

C 



1 8 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

could catch them. In another, 1341, "Jack Sharpe " promised 
priests' heads at ten a penny. Taking all the conditions John and 
his people were not so far wrong-. " Falseness and guile," said 
one, in half-poem, half-proverb, " have reigned too long." " True 
love is away, and clerks for wealth work woe." These outbreaks, 
notably Tyler's, were revolts of peasants and labourers. The 
serfs " with their litter," that is the family, were still passed on 
by their owners, or sold.^ This being the state of things, Tyler 
is in Southwark in search of redress with the commons of Kent at 
his back, some 100,000 men. The energetic Mayor, Walworth, 
pulls up the drawbridge, and closes the way over the bridge with 
a huge iron chain across. But the best of all fortifications, stout- 
hearted men, were not there to back up the Mayor ; the commons 
cry to the warders to let down the drawbridge that they may 
pass, or " we will destroy you all." One may imagine the tumult 
and noise at the Southwark end of the bridge. The obstructions 
were removed, and way was made into the City. What Tyler's 
folk did there is beyond my story. Before this they had not been 
idle in Southwark. The industrious Flemings there, interfering 
they said with trade and the English worker, were put rudely to 
the test ; the bread and cheese test was put, and those who failed 
to say the words after the English manner were summarily dealt 
with. The wild people broke open the prisons, loosed the prisoners, 
took the Marshal of the Marshalsea even from sanctuary, and put 
him to death. They broke down the stews of the Bankside, which 
were farmed by certain rich people, the owners, to Flemish people, 
and which places were countenanced and ordered by the Bishops 
of Winchester, in whose liberty they were. The froes of Flanders, 
who managed the stews, were maltreated or killed outright ; the 
rabble broke down the houses of the jurors and questmongers, and 
in short dealt in the rudest way with authority. It is known to 
all how Tyler was killed, and how the rising once so formidable 
melted away and came to nothing, except, perhaps, that no wave 
like this leaves the shore it has invaded exactly as before. 

In 1450, a different man altogether, with quite other causes of 
complaint, found his way with his followers to the Bridge Gate in 

" Green's ' Histoiy of the English People, ' p. 238, Sic. A book for every 
house. 



CONFLICTS AT LONDON BRIDGE. 19 

Southwark. He had come from Blackheath with about 20,000 
men to enforce the "Complaint of the Commons of Kent." This 
they laid before the Royal Council. It is of great value as to the 
light which it throws on the condition of the people. The old 
social discontent seems to have subsided ; the question of villeinage 
and serfage of 1381 finds no place in this "Complaint " of 1450.^ 
With the exception of a demand for the repeal of the Statute of 
Labourers,' the programme of the commons was not now social 
but political, it involved economy, freedom of election, and a 
change of ministers. But this story of Cade is told under ' Inns of 
Southwark, the White Hart,' and needs not to be further repeated 
here. 

In 1554, a nobler man and again a very different cause are 
before the Bridge Gate. The people were now afraid of the 
Spanish marriage of Queen Mary, and of the influence of the 
Spaniards to come after. The great revulsion, ultra-Protestant 
to ulti-a-Papist, sadly disturbed many. Accordingly, Sir Thomas 
Wyatt, son of the Sir Thomas whose name stands so well in the 
literature of his age, was persuaded to head the irrepressible 
Kentish men ; not, as the poet ^ says, to levy war against the 

' Green, edit. 1877, vol. i. pp. 5S5~6- 

" The Statute of Labourers was an attempt to fix work and wages dead against 
the natural law of supply and demand. See Knight's ' Popular History of Eng- 
land,' vol. i. p. 471, for a clear and excellent account of this statute, and of its 
ultimate failure. A curious instance, illustrative even to the time of Elizabeth, I 
copy from MS. orders of the weekly court of the governors of St. Thomas's Hos- 
pital, held 2nd October, 1570 ; present, Sir William Chester and fourteen others : 
" At this Cowrtt yt ys agreed y' James Lynche was a suter unto the governors for 
his ifreedome, in cosyderacion of his longe svys [service] unto this hospitale yt -was 
grauntyd hym by cosentt of the hole Cowrtt y' y" governors wold be suters unto 
my lord mayor for hym for the same upon this codyssyon [condition] that the sayd 
James lynche shall sarve w' his ij apprentysses beyng of the Age of xviij yeres & 
upward for the fyrst yere by the Day so often as the Do work vj" a Day and for 
the ij yere vij'' by the Day, & for the iij yere viij'' by y" Day, and for the iiij yere 
x*" by the Day, and for his one pson [person] he shall have xij'' by the Day, & to 
be bound to sv [serve] this howsse for the same wayge for Ever." 1350, masons' 
wages were 5^/. a day, carpenters', ^li., plasterers', S'^-t labourers', 3d. and 3411? 
" Who takes more shall go to prison for 40 days " (Riley, ' Mem. Lond.,' p. 253). 
But we must not forget the price of provisions at the time ; 1?.^ , in 1 309 a carcase 
of beef was 18s., a hog, 3s. 3d, a sheep, 2s. (Henry, ' Histoiy '). 

' Tennyson, 'Queen Mary.' 

C 2 



20 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Queen's grace, but to save her from herself, and from Philip, and 
from Spain. The poet tells us the issue in this last line — 

" I '11 have my head set higher in the State ; 
Or— if the Lord God will it— on the stake." 

And stake it was, at last. Arrived at Southwark he divided his 
followers, some going by St. George's Church towards the bridge, 
some, himself at their head, by way of Bermondsey Street, Wyatt 
with some dash could have crossed the bridge, — and then ? — We 
know how near it was to a different issue ; how the struggle might 
have ended, and with it spared us the Marian cruelties and scandals. 
The hesitation before the Southwark Gate probably lost Wyatt 
the victory. The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas White, had cut down 
the drawbridge and had thrown it into the river ; the bridge gates 
were shut ; ramparts and fortifications were raised around them, 
and ordnance was planted.^ The Queen, energetic and courageous," 
was at Guildhall, and Lord William Howard was on her behalf 
Lieutenant of the City. Wyatt had some trouble in Southwark. 
This appears to have inflamed his followers ; it led unfortunately 
to the sack of Winchester Palace, and the destruction of the 
Bishop's library there. Instead of daring an advance at the actual 
time, he appears to have looked to defence and to . have dug 
extensive trenches, one at the southern end of the bridge, one at 
St. George's, one in Bermondsey, and one towards Winchester 
House." Not deficient in personal courage, he was for a 
leader not daring enough. Breaking down the wall of a house 
adjoining the Bridge Gate he ascended the leads, and came down 
late at night, at eleven, into the porter's lodge. He found the 
porter asleep, his wife and others watching by the fire. He saw 
further on the Lord Admiral, the Lord Mayor, Sir Andrew Judd, 
and one or two more. After careful observation, he returned 
unseen and in safety. The Southwark people, knowing what 
preparation had been made, — how the Tower ordnance were 

' Thomson. 

5 She made proclamation that Wyatt and his people v.'eve rank traitore, and that 
all who did take his part might go to him, and should have free passage to South- 
wark. Grafton. 

° ' Chronicle of Queen Jane,' &c, Camden Society, 



PHILIP OF SPAIN AND QUEEN MARY IN SOUTHWARK. 21 

pointed at the churches of St. Mary Overy and St. Olave — besought 
him to leave them. "Sir," they said, " we are like to be utterly 
undone and destroyed for your sake ; for the love of God take pity 
on us." "So in speedy manner he marched away," telling them 
" that they should not be killed or hurt in his behalf."' The people 
had, in fact, while it was safe for them to do so, done their best to 
entertain Wyatt and his followers. The end came, and then trial 
and execution ; the prisons were filled, and many were kept in 
churches ; gallows were erected in the highways, at Pepper Alley 
Gate near the bridge, at St. George's Church, in Bermondsey 
Street, and elsewhere ; and, according to the custom of the time, 
dead bodies hanging on the gibbets were before the eyes of the 
people in the common thoroughfares of Southwark. Wyatt was 
beheaded on Tower Hill, and portions of his body put up, one at 
Pepper Alley, one at Newington just beyond St. George's, and one 
at St. Thomas-a-Watering in the Kent Road. Alarmed and 
broken, the offending people yet spared, sued for pardon, throwing 
up their hats and shouting with joy, "God save Queen Mary." 
Now Philip of Spain was coming to marry the Queen, so the 
streets were made pleasant, and the cruel sights were all cleared 
away by the fourth of June. 

Philip now come, a different scene presents itself at the draw- 
bridge. The whole is worth repeating from John Elder's letter in 
the Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary. " On Friday, 
August 1 7th, the King and the Queen landed at St. Mary Overie's 
Stairs, on the Southwark side, and every corner and way was 
Jined with people to see them. They passed through Winchester 
House, my Lord Chancellor Gardiner's, and slept that night at 
Suffolk Place, the "Maner Place" of the map (73). From Suffolk 
Place they made a noble and triumphant entry into the City, stay- 
ing awhile at the drawbridge to witness or submit to the infliction 
of the " vaine spectacle set up : two images presenting two giants, 
Corineus and Gogmagog, holding between them certain latin verses, 
too flattering to be given." ° 

Afar other display took place in 1588, in September, during 

' Thomson. 

* Thomson citing Holinshed. 



22 OLD SOUTIiWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Southwark Fair, when Long Southwark and St. Margaret's Hill 
were full of people. The great defeat of the Spanish Armada 
having been achieved, the standards taken were displayed over 
the Southwark Gate toward the fair. One may faintly imagine 
the tumultuous joy of the people at the great deliverance. 

In 1647 another scene. The Parliament sends Colonel Rains- 
borough to possess Southwark, which he effects after one night's 
march, despite works and forts. He found the bridge gates shut, 
the portcullis lowered, and a guard within ; but by the persuasion 
of two pieces of ordnance against the gate the great fort was sur- 
rendered, and he was master of the City. The Southwark people 
were willing, and even aiding. Accordingly, the two members for 
■ the borough," Colonel Thompson and Master Snelling, are directed 
to return the thanks of the Houses for the late favourable action of 
the forces, soldiers, and inhabitants of the Borough of Southwark. 

I have tarried somewhat long at the gate, but the deeds done 
here are events in our national history, and they tell with much 
consistency the spirit of the Southwark people. 

Passing on to quite other matters,^ mills were here for grinding 
corn, at the south-western end of the bridge, — "A long shed 
formed of shingle or thin boards, erected on three of the sterlings, 
a covering, as the citizens intended, for water-wheels." Indeed, 
some of the arches on the Southwark side — I am only concerned 
with them — were so narrow that they suggested water-wheels as 
their only use ; three of them were each seventeen feet wide, and 
two only fifteen feet. With a swift stream and a fall on the eastern 
side, it would not be nice to " shoot " such a passage in a boat. 
The custom of doing so should have suggested the appointment of a 
coroner for the bridge. Water- works were established here, to 
supply South London with water. A picture of these works may 
be seen in Thomson. The earliest supply must have been from 
wells and streams, so many of which were ditches intersecting the 
ground in all directions, and receiving, much as the Thames did 
later, the contents of houses of office and innumerable sties, these 
forming, as I have said, a prominent feature in sewers present- 
ments. As to this water supply, the passage in Strype's Stow, 

" Rusliworth, vol. ii. p. 772, 
' Tliomson. 



WATERWORKS AT THE BRIDGE FOOT. 23 

1720, p. 27, vol. i., is interesting. — "The City revived an old act 
whereby they had power to have water on all sides of London, 
five miles about. Accordingly, on the Southwark side, for the 
furnishing that Borough with good water, some gentlemen took a 
lease of the City for waters arising that way at 550/. fine and 250/. 
a year. But after all their pains they were unable to find water 
sufficient for their purpose, and the Lord Keeper discharged them 
upon their inability. Southwark chiefly useth the waters of the 
Thames that fall into a great pond in St. Mary Overies, which 
drives a mill called St. Saviours Mill. The revenue is supposed to 
be 1,200/. a year." Not long after this the parish leased some 
land close to the Thames, at Bank End, to Henry Thrale, roughly 
about 180 feet by 54, at a rent of 22/. lOs. Upon the enormous (!) 
outlay of this very limited concern the Company seems to have 
delivered water through a six-inch pipe to parts of Southwark, and 
to have realized, as they said, only two per cent. But this is later 
on than my appointed time. Enough has now been said about the 
small part of London Bridge pertaining to Southwark. 

From the bridge gate looking south, immediately before us is the 
great highway called Long Southwark, which reaches as far as St. 
Margaret's Church, or the Court-house (map, 22); thente along St. 
Margaret's Hill as far as St.George's Church (map, 56). "We modern 
thinkers and imaginary spectators are standing by the stulps, and 
looking along this highway. Allowing for modern work and older 
rudeness in this respect, the polished granite posts now at the west 
front of St. Paul's would be stulps. Richard Chaucer, a vintner, 
probably the grandfather of Geoffrey Chaucer, buried it is be- 
lieved in St. Thomas's Church, Southwark, devised certain houses 
near these " stulps " to a City church. In the churchwardens' ac- 
counts of St. Margaret's (fifteenth century), some 15^. are gathered 
or expended at stands " against the stulpes at the church style." 
We read of the hard fight on the bridge, how Cade's people " drove 
the Londoners to the stoulpes at St. Magnus corner, and sodaynly 
agayn the rebels were repulsed and driven back to the stulpes in 
Southwarke," from pillar to post, as the proverb says. 

In this highway the market of the borough was held, in the 
churchyard of St. Margaret's also (map, 23); this was, indeed, an 
old custom ; moreover, the churchyard was open, and in the public 



24 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PKOPLE. 

way. In old pictures the market is shown in this public street, 
notably in that of Visscher, by Hondius, 1616. I am looking at 
this excellent bird's-eye view of Southwark now. The bridge gate 
has some eighteen human heads on poles at the top, a common 
sight, as no one appears to be regarding them. Groups of people 
are standing about, chiefly at inn doors; two are seated on a 
bench outside one of the inns, for beer and gossip, apparently. A 
man on horseback is stopping for refreshment, and a jug is being 
held up to him ; a child with a hoop is running across the street, 
near to where Thomas's Street is now ; a boy is running behind a 
waggon which is just disappearing down Tooley Street, by the 
convenient corner there : a covered coach open at the sides is 
standing by Pepper Alley : a man with a heavily laden barrow is 
crossing ; a woman standing by a large basket in the middle of the 
highway is dealing; three large tables covered with articles for 
sale are standing nearly end to end along Long Southwark, at 
which many people are dealing, men and women : a man is stand- 
ing with oxen near to Pepper Alley. 

This is the Borough Market of 16 16. A market had been held 
on London Bridge, for in 1276 it is forbidden, and moreover the 
people of the City are not to cross into Southwark to buy cattle. In 
1283 "the bridge masters make complaint that traders had with- 
drawn from the regular markets which paid toll to London Bridge, 
and had erected stalls in the king's highway and other adjoining 
places, and had sold their flesh and fish. Butchers and fishmongers 
are especially specified. The traffic in beasts appears to be consider- 
able, and, as in 1676 the churchyard of St. Saviour's is not protected, 
the vestry orders that posts shall be put up to keep bullocks and 
horses from going through. In churchwardens' accounts and vestry 
proceedings (St. Saviour's) are some items which show the state of 
the people and some incidents of the times : — 

"1598. P'* to the poor woman that was brought to bed in 
the meale market, to set her going out of the parish, ij'. 

"1605. To bury the child, x'' — and to the woman which 
was brought to bed under the butcher's stall, xij*. 

" 1621 . The coroner shall be sent for to view the bodies of 

" Riley, 'Liber Custumarum,' 



THE BOROUGH MARKET; SOUTHWARK. 25 

two persons that died in the street about a week ago, and 
have laid in the carte, for which purpose the bodies are to 
be digged up again («ir)." 

Dues were paid for standings at the gates of St. Thomas's Hos- 
pital.' Butchers, one of whom paid 20' for his stand, another 10'. 
Tanners had stands at these gates, and sold the " calf skynnes 
and hydes " in the open street, paying so much per dozen to the 
governors. A meal market was here near Fowle Lane, which was 
totally destroyed in the fire of 1676. The market-place of the map 
(23), on the site of the churchyard of St. Margaret's, would imply 
that the old custom had held in this case. It was a convenience in the 
old time to have markets near churches, and to deal on Sundays 
and holidays. Travelling was not only inconvenient but dangerous ; 
the roads were soft and miry ; people were their own protectors ; 
in every way it was more convenient for the good wives to market 
at festivals, when many would be wending the same way, the 
services of the church being attended at the same time, and so they 
made the best of both worlds. 

So early as 1285, 13 Edw. I., these churchyard markets were 
forbidden. In 1448, 27 Hen. VI., all showing of goods and mer- 
chandise, except necessary victuals in fairs and markets, was to 
cease on the great festivals of the church, and on all Sundays ex- 
cept the four Sundays in harvest, — the holding fairs and markets 
for any purpose on Sundays was prohibited in 1677.* But now, 
1877, many parts of London in the poorer districts have on this 
day all the appearance of fairs and markets ; so crowded that the 
old people of the past would wonder how it was possible their 
children should have so multiplied, London and its vicinity alone 
containing probably as many people as all England did then. 

But to return to our market. We see that Southwark was 
provided far back in the misty times of no settled date.. Henry III., 
a tolerably oppressive and hard-handed man, among his other 
troublesome ways with the City, ordered close inquiry as to the 
customary tolls — dues upon sale of goods or transit of cattle in 
Southwark. The answers given are — for instance, an ox, one 

'MS., St. Thomas's Hospital, 1569, 1574. 
* Penny CyclopEEdia, art. 'Market.' 



26 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

obolus ; a cow with calf, one denarius ; four sheep, a denarius ; 
if a man be let out with merchandise, one obolus ; and so on : that 
the customs are worth to the King, per annum, with all departures, 
gifts, and perquisites, lol. (Riley). 

More to the point. Edward III. promised the citizens that he 
would grant no charter for a market within seven miles of them. 
He granted to them Southwark, including, no doubt, any right of 
market which had been held before. Indeed, Edward IV., to 
remove "ambiguities," granted right of assize and assay of bread, 
wine, beer, and ale, and all other victuals and things saleable in 
the borough, with punishment and correction of offenders in selling 
the same ; and, further, right of all that pertained to the office of 
clerk of the market. These grants were amplified and confirmed 
by Edward VI. A curious custom, not quite extinct even now, 
was then of sufficient importance as to be noticed in the " orders : ' ' 
the earnest penny given on a bargain — " God's penny " when it 
was given to the saints or for tapers in the church' — luck penny 
when it was received, say, first in the morning. So Misson, about 
1 700, relates this in his travels in England : — " A woman that goes 
to market told me t'other day that the Butcher women of London, 
those that sell fowls, butter, eggs, &c., and in general most trades- 
people, have a particular esteem for what they call a handsel; 
that is to say, the first money they receive in a morning; they 
kiss it, spit upon it, and put it in a pocket by itself." 

An Act of 1754 as to the market recites that Edward VI. 
granted to the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London the 
market or markets within the Borough of Southwark for ever ; 
that an Act, 29 Charles II., enacted that the market should be 
kept where it had been anciently, and in no other place, namely 
in the High Street, from London Bridge to St. Margaret's Hill. 
The Act which recites these Acts, 28 Geo. II., 1754, says the way 
has become a great thoroughfare for the counties of Surrey, Kent, 
and Sussex," the market much obstructs trade and commerce, and 

■' An indication at least of the proximity of the markets or dealing-places to 
the church, and how customs kindly to the church grew out of this fact. 

" The list of inns for waggons and travellers hereabout is veiy extensive. P'lWi: 
' Carriers' Cosmographie, ' Taylor, 1637 ; and later (ind more pertinent to the Act, 
' New Remarks of London,' 1732, .and Strype's Stow, 1720, second Appendix. 



soUtiiwark market, punishments. 2^ 

the City is desirous of giving up the said market. It is enacted 
that from and after the 2Sth March, 1756, no market whatever 
shall be held in the High Street ; and that no person shall use any 
stall, trussel, block, or other stand in the High Street, or expose to 
sale upon any such stands, peas, beans, herbs, victuals, or other 
commodities. Another Act, 28 Geo. II., 1754, takes note of the 
resignation of the City, " for the convenience and accommodation 
of the public," and appoints Commissioners, naming a great 
number, who are to acquire land and set out the market. It has 
now become modern, and must be left as no longer within the 
scope of my paper. 

In the olden time trial and punishment were necessarily provided 
in a ready way for offenders at markets, and at fairs which were 
at first merely periodical markets. The owner of a market was 
bound to have and hold a court'' close at hand for the purpose ; 
and, as it was for people on the move, it was called of pie powdre 
{pies pourdreux), dusty feet. In this court offences were tried the 
same day, and the parties punished in the stocks or at the whip- 
ping-post the minute after condemnation. The orders connected 
with that at St. Bartholomew's Fair are given in Maitland, 
Vol. ii., p. 1213. The punishment had now come to be imprisonment 
or fine, but it was not so formerly. Then, offenders even of 
apparent position often paid in person. The instruments were at 
hand, plenty enough. The ominous looking erection (map, 24) 
opposite Foul Lane was a warning ; this was the Southwark cage 
and pillory for ready use in case of need. Probably a whipping- 
post accompanied it ; if not, there was one^ in St. Saviour's church- 
yard, and a private one in the yard of St. Thomas's Hospital; 
indeed every parish had, by order, its stocks and whipping-post. 
The pillory appears to have been movable, such punishments 
being recorded as inflicted in different parts of the borough- 
opposite Foul Lane, opposite St. George's Church. A structure, 
which I believe to be nothing other than a cage and pillory, is 
plainly shown in the map ( 3 1 ) at the Berghenb, in Tooley Street ; an 

' Pipowder Court, ' Penny Cyclopcedia. ' 

« December, 1598. — " Ordered that a whipping-post shall be set up before the 
church wall in the most convenient place," Vestiy Proceedings, 



28 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

oak cag-e, as I surmise. Such things were common, and attracted 
the attention of the foreigner. " Visible in the streets were pillories 
for neck and hands, stocks for feet, chains for streets to stop them 
in need ; in the suburbs, oak cages for offenders and pounds for 
animals."" 

Let me note a few examples, which are either of Southwark or 
the City.^ In 1 320, a man put in the pillory for cheating-, from 
tierce to vespers, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ; in 1414 another so placed on 
three market-days for cheating a pellerer in Southwark ; several 
other early cases — a butcher, for selling putrid meat, was placed 
in the pillory, and the meat burned below him — ^severe, if the wind 
was toward him ; a vintner, for selling bad wine, some he had to 
drink, and the rest was poured upon his head while he was under- 
going his punishment. Bakers are very frequently punished— the 
doubtful loaf hung round the neck. In 1550 a man named Grig 
is in the pillory in Southwark for pretending to cure diseases by 
words and prayers. Grig, who was taken for a prophet, was set 
on a scaffold with a paper on his breast, whereon was written his 
deceitful and hypocritical conduct. On the 8th of September he 
was set on the pillory, at the time of our Lady Fair in Southwark. 
The Mayor and Aldermen riding through the fair, he asked them 
all forgiveness. "Thus much for Grig," the chronicler says. 

In 1 560 a skinner of Southwark is pilloried for soothsaying and 
immoral practices; in 1561 a gentleman of the King's Bench, for 
giving divers ladies and gentlemen nosegays, and telling them 
they should be married. ' Machyn's Diary,' sixteenth century, is 
full of instances of this punishment. It was light or severe, a 
condemnation or an ovation, as the popular feeling might go. In 
J 780 a coachman in Southwark died in the pillory before the time 
of his sentence had expired ; there are numerous instances of very 
serious maltreatment. I have a picture of Titus Oates, exagger- 
ated no doubt, as the air seems almost darkened with cabbage 
stalks, dead cats, and the like. 

The pillory, cage, the whipping-post, and the stocks were of 
course in accord with the ways of the time, and were often all four 

" ' Diaiy Venetian Embassy, ' London, lemp. James I. ; ' Quarterly Review, '1857. 
' Stow, Riley, Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' vol, iii. S;c. 



PILLORY, WHIPPING POST AND CAGE. 29 

together in the same place. That at the Ber-ghen-e is, I think, an 
instance. The pillory and the cage in the High Street, the ducking- 
stool behind Winchester House, the whipping-post in the church- 
yard,, and the stocks near at hand, the "Cross," or whipping-post, 
within St. Thomas's Hospital precincts, — these and others known, 
suggest much of the unknown, and altogether give one the idea 
that honesty and good manners came by fear and force rather than 
by persuasion. Really the way in which our ancestors taught 
religion, to speak of nothing else, was more like Hood's picture of 
driving pigs to market than by any method approximating to the 
Divine. Here now is " an innkeeper's wife pilloried for eating flesh 
in Lent " — a wilful case, probably. But all do not suffer for righteous- 
ness' sake : " four women are set in the stocks at night till their 
husbands did fetch them home " — out for a frolic, no doubt.'' The 
governors of St. Thomas's Hospital appear to have had trouble this 
way with their sisters, especially in fair time, when the fun and 
frolic were at their gates. 

Passing further south to St. Margaret's Hill, in the highway, 
we should have to go over the old churchyard of St. Margaret's, 
and should so come to the Well (map, 57). If the people drank 
freely of this well, the prevalence of certain diseases named so 
frequently in the early burial registers is explained, not excluding 
other like causes which were then common and almost disregarded. 
The subsoil of Southwark has always been porous enough some 
twenty feet or so down, being of made earth, sand, and gravel, — 
the effect a more or less free passage for the contents of burial 
places, cesspools, and the like to wells in the vicinity, and this I, as 
officer of health some twenty years back, found to be so ; tracing, as 
I was able to do, evidences of most offensive and dangerous percola- 
tion into the drinking water. To think this out is to see that the 
supply in Southwark was in the old "times almost wholly of this 
character ; true the population was, except near the river, sparse, 
and the ditches were not all " black." ^ But Southwark was 
charged with open ditches which received — well, everything 
which could pass into ditches. The overfilled churchyard was 
north of our well, not far off ; on the south " the syncke " 

^ 1563. 
' "The black ditch,'' often noted in early sewers presentments. 



30 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

(map, 59), on a large scale. The entry,^ 14S6, " Paid to the 
Pavyre for mendyng abowte the well, xxij'," shows that the 
wardens of St. Margaret's kept it in repair ; and a small item of 
income appears in the shape of 4d. for a standing at the well, pro- 
bably in fair or market time. 

The chief highway, what with market, pillory, and churchyard, 
is rather objectionably occupied; and now here is the bull-ring 
(map, S8). The bears and bulls of the Bankside were a permanent 
institution, and the boats by hundreds were always passing to 
and fro with people from Westminster and the City. This bull- 
ring was for the special delight of the Southwark people. Bull- 
rings in the high streets of towns, market towns chiefly, were not 
uncommon. There was a bull-ring in the High Street, Tutbury, 
instituted by John of Gaunt, Chaucer's friend. One part of the 
main street at Horncastle is called the Bull-ring — the name is 
perpetuated yet on the walls of the houses. These sports were 
almost universally practised in the towns and villages of the king- 
dom, and were of course attended, notably in high streets, with 
great riots and confusions.' 

Evidently there were nuisances of this sort in and about London, 
to be provided against. In Calthrop's reports ° as to the ' Cus- 
tomes AND Liberties OF the City of LONDON ' a statute is 
noticed that " No man shall bait Bull or Bear or Horse in the open 
street, under pain of twenty shillings." The old Lord of South- 
wark, Earl Warren, was a patron of the sport. He was the first 
Lord of Stamford, and at Stamford, in 1389, the guild of St. Martin 
state that they have a bull which is hunted, not baited, by dogs, 
and then sold, " whereupon the bretheren and sisteren set down 
to feast." The origin of the bull -ring at Stamford, how the Earl 
saw two bulls fighting, how he liked the sport amazingly, how he 
gave the Castle Meadows where he saw the bulls fight to the 
butchers of the town, is all told in Brand. King John was a patron. 



■* Churchwardens' Accounts, St. Margaret's Southwark. ^ 

" Authorities; — Strutl's 'Sports and Pastimes,' ed. iSlo ; 'English Gilds,' 

p. 192; Pegge, 'Archzeologia,' vol. ii. ; Brand, 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. ii, 

Bohn's ed. 

« 1676 : p. 189, 



THE BULL RING AND SPORTS. 3 1 

and the tastes of Queen Elizabeth ran a little this way.' " Her 
Majesty," says Rowland White, in the Sidney Papers, "says she 
is very well ; this day she appoints a Frenchman to doe feates 
upon a rope in the Conduit Court ; to-morrow she hath commanded 
the beares, the bull and the ape to be bayted in the tiltyard." 
One of the treats in store for foreign ambassadors and visitors was 
the sports with the bulls and bears on the Bank. It was indeed the 
acknowledged sport, and drew most people, high or low. Even 
the parson is supposed to gabble over the service, that the sports 
may not be hindered and his people kept from the baiting.^ " If 
there be a bull or bear to be baited in the afternoon the minister 
hurries the service." 

An indenture, 17 April, 3 Eliz., 1561,^ corroborates the fact 
of our bull-ring. Christofer Rolle, of London, gent., sells to 
George Thompson, of St. Georges, Southwark, carpenter, and 
Johane, his wife, " all those fourtene tenementes, or cotages and 
gardeyns, commonly called the Bulryng, sett, lying and beyng on 
the streyte syde, by the alley called the Bullryng, in the Parishe of 
St. George, in Southwark, that is to sale, betwene the mesuage or 
late inn called the George, nowe in teanure of Rychard Bellamy by 
leasse on the south parte, and the parke there on the west parte, and 
the landes of the said Christofer Rolle now called' the Pewter 
Pott in the Hoope on the north parte, and the Kynges Highe 
Streete of the Borough of Southwark on the East parte." Some 
signs of inns must have come out of this sport, for instance, the 
Chained Bull, the Bull and Chain, the Bull and Dog, and the like, 
which were everywhere about. The Bear passant with a collar 
and chain, the token emblem of the Bear at Bridge Foot, South- 
wark, shows another phase of these rude sports. These animals 
were in fact reared and trained for the purpose, as the dogs were, the 
bulls being called game bulls. So general was the custom that, in 
some places, bulls were ordered to be baited before they were 
slaughtered.' It must seem very strange to most of us that bulls 
were once baited and people burned and otherwise cruelly treated, 

' Continuation of Henry's History by Andrews, vol. ii. p. 324. 
« Stephen Gosson, 1579 ; Thomas Cartwright, 1572. 
" Original said to be in Warwick Castle : Mr. Halliwell's Notes. 
' Pegge, Fitzstephen, 1772. 



32 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

even to death, in some sort as a spectacle, and this just in the line 
of our every-day walk to and fro upon our peaceful work. 

Sights quite other than these were every now and then before 
the eyes of the people ; so much was done before them openly, 
whether in punishment, sport, or pageant. In 1 522 Charles V. is 
received in the public way with many ceremonies, — the clergy, 
with copes, crosses, and censers, line the way ; opposite the King's 
Bench and the Marshalsea, in the High Street, the Emperor 
stays to desire pardon for the prisoners. In 1518 Cardinal Cam - 
peggio passes along with the cross borne before him, his servants 
in red come after ; Wolsey's servants upon two hundred horses, all 
in one livery, with red hats, are on both sides the streets ; the clergy 
with copes of gold, crosses, and censers, " Sensing the Cardinal with 
great reverence as he went through the streets of Southwark." 
Another time the Bishop of Winchester, Waynflete,'' considering the 
fatal distemper of 1467, raging in Southwark among innocents and 
children, to be on account of sin, thinks it best to meet it with pub- 
lic processions, prayers, and litanies. He accordingly orders the 
clergy of Southwark to meet him at eight in the morning, to go in 
solemn procession through the public street by the door of St. 
Margaret's and St. Olave's, to the monastery of Bermondsey, sing- 
ing the litanies as they went. At the funerals ofJHenry VII. and of 
Gardiner, melancholy pageants passed along the borough, with 
horsemen, torches, and much other pomp. Another time, along the 
street from St. George's to the bridge, passed with open ceremony 
and pageant Queen Mary, with her husband Philip of Spain. This 
was the highway to Canterbury, and hosts of pilgrims like to 
those of Chaucer and the landlord of the Tabard were often passing 
along. Southwark streets have witnessed some grand as well as 
awful sights, of which our present life gives not the slightest hint, — 
battle and tumult, and the frequent brawl ending in death ; dead 
bodies drawn naked at horsetail ; condemned people on hurdles 
and in carts going to execution ; people publicly flogged or carted; 
the quarters of others exhibited, bloody and horribly mutilated ; 
some people standing for hours in the pillory, — all in the way of 
the people going to and fro on daily duty. Let us be thankful for 

' Cassan, ' Bishops of AVinchester. ' 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INNS. 33 

the chang-e, and that we live in this time rather than that,. and in 
this country rather than in others where, even now, Iil<.e horrors 
are perpetrated. 

I mig-ht here notice the busy and uproarious throng- of South - 
wark Fair, which yearly, in September, for about 300 years, filled 
the Hig-h Street and its purlieus from St. Margaret's Hill to St. 
Georgfe's Church. But that subject claims a paper to itself, for 
which I have abundant material, and may, if this book should 
prove acceptable, put it forth with much more not less interesting. 

THE INNS OF SOUTHWARK. 

Fynes Morison ^ says, " the world affords not such inns as Eng- 
land hath, for as soon as a passenger comes, the servants run to 
him ; one takes his horse and walks him till he be cold, then rubs 
him and gives him meat, but," says he, "let the master look to 
this point" ; possibly an unworthy suspicion ; " another gives the 
traveller his private chamber, and kindles his fire ; the third pulls 
off his boots and makes them clean ; then the host or hostesse 
visits him — if he will eat with the host, or at a common table, it 
will be ^. or 6id^ If a gentleman has his own chamber, his ways 
are consulted, and he has music too if he likes — moreover if any of 
his supper is left he has it for his breakfast," &c. Fynes Morison 
says further, " a man cannot more freely command at home in his 
own house ; and at parting if he give a few pence to the cham- 
berlain and hostler, they wish him a happy journey ; and what can 
a man want more ? " This description is no doubt rose-tinted. 
Morison must have been in a good temper, and been treated well. 
Adverse accounts may, however, be read, the balance being in 
favour of the old English inns. 

Let us observe the map, — the words are not many, but not less 
than fifteen of them are the names of inns, some well known and 
represented at this day. 

"To good and bad the common inn of rest." 

"In Southwark," says Stow, "there be many fair inns for tra- 
vellers." He names the Spurre, the Christopher, the Queen's 

3 'Itinerary,' 1617, on English Inns. 

■" Multiply perhaps by eight for present value. 



34 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Head, he Tabarde, the George, the Hart, the King's Head, 
and others. 

The word inn was not however confined to houses for travellers ; 
there were inns, that is, resting places, temporary residences, or 
town houses of important folk. Many of these were in Southwark, 
among the rest the Bishop of Rochester's inn, west of Foul Lane ; 
the Abbot of Hide's, within the Tabard ; the Abbot of Battle's, and 
the Abbot of Augustine's, by the river. But of these another time. 

Southwark was the great highway into London, through which 
came great dignitaries with their people, some to abide in it, as at 
the Duke of Suffolk's Place ; at Bermondsey Abbey ; at Win- 
chester House, or at Fastolf Place, in Tooley Street ; and the 
retinue would sometimes fill the inns about.^ There are also inns 
of a lower caste. In 1631, when Southwark was of small dimen- 
sions, the question of too many alehouses came up ; 228 were 
counted, and of these 43 had to be suppressed, — 2 1 in Kent Street, 
partly because of the plague, partly from their excessive number 
and evil repute. In connexion with these proceedings 300 vagrants 
had been punished and passed on within three months. In 1619 
the inhabitants state that Southwark consists chiefly of ians, and 
they petition against any new ones, notably two on the Bankside. 

Not only was Southwark a highway, but it was a sort of Alsatia, 
a place of resort for the worst of people, — the passage of the river, 
from any other places too hot for them, was so easy. Many dis- 
reputable houses had been, from this cause, suppressed in 1574. 

These old inns were the first places for theatrical entertain- 
ments ; the models upon which modern theatres have been con- 
structed. Many of the old inns of the borough had the court- 
yard, a kind of pit for the groundlings ; rooms round which imply 
boxes, and galleries in tiers around and above the yard." At the 
Angel Tavern (Angel Court), next the King's Bench, the ' Faith- 
ful Couple,' or the ' Royal Shepherdess,' was later on performed by 
Pinkethman and others.' The Catherine Wheel, the Mermaid, and 

= "For five of my Lord's [Henry VIIL] servants dinners when he dined with 
the Duke of Suftolk in Southwark, 12*." Rolls Calendars, 1519. 

" More cf this, if I am permitted to write a paper on Bankside and the 
Theatres. 
In 1722. 



PUBLIC INNS AS PLAYHOUSES. 3$ 

Other of the old inns, all now passed or passing away, show by their 
construction that they were often used as theatres. I have an abun- 
dance of old advertisements to that effect. The first taste here for 
theatrical representation came out of the religious and other plays 
which were periodically performed in and about the churches, 
as already shown in the notice of our own old St. Margaret's 
Church. 

Southwark, in Queen Elizabeth's time, must have been full of 
carriers' inns.* In the yards of some a stage was erected and 
dramatic pieces performed. In 1664 like remains were to be seen 
in the yards of the Cross Keys Gracechurch Street, and of the 
Bull Bishopsgate. Stow's ' Continuator,' 1570 to 1630, speaks of 
" five innes or common osteries turned into playhouses." In 1602, 
" Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor, granting permission to 
the servants of the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Worcester to 
play at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap."* Lord Hunsdon,^ iS94, 
speaks of his " noo companie of players who plai this winter at the 
Cross Kayes in Gratious Street," and he asks the Lord Mayor to 
permit them to do so ; that they would " begin at 2, and have done 
betwene fower and five, and will nott use anie drumes or trum- 
pettes att all for the calling of people together, and shal be con- 
tributories to the poore of the parishe where they plaie, according 
to their habilities." This contributing to the poor is several times 
noticed in the parish records of St. Saviour's. In 1599 it is ordered 
" that the churchwardens shall talk with the players for tithes and 
money for the poor, according to the order taken with the Master 
of the Revells." Another time Mr. Henslow and Jacob Meade 
"shall be moved for money for the poor," but this refers to the 
players at the playhouses. 

Brewers and breweries meet one at every turn in the old maps 
and records. Brewers were men of influence in St. Olave's and 
St. Saviour's. The Leakes, the Weblings, Hall, Monger, Child, 
Maylin, and Richardson of Bermondsey, were among the older 

* The water poet Taylor's ' Carriers' Cosmographie, ' &c. Except by inference 
from the known after use of these places during Southwark Fair, I have no proof 
of earfy-plsys at Southwark Inns, but there is no doubt of the fact. 

» "Remembrancia," City Records, 1878. 

> 'Illustrations,' J. O. Halliwell, pp. 31, 32. 

D 3 



36 OLD SOUTI-IWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

ones. Colonel Pride of the Cromwell times, well known in South- 
wark, had been a brewer's man. Dr. Meggott, a noted Rector of 
St. Olave's, was son of a brewer in that parish. In our map is 
Cross's brewhouse, near to Foul Lane. Cross was an important man 
of his parish, St. Margaret's, Southwark. A place of inns and o 
breweries, its ales were noted enough. Chaucer makes a frequent 
joke of it, and his pilgrims knew the taste and the effects well : — 

' ' The nappy strong ale of Southe worke 
Keeps many a gossip from the Kirke." 

The cook's apprentice, like many another, " loved bet the taverne 

than the schoppe"; and the miller, before he begins his tale, 

deprecatingly tells that he is "dronke," or he infers it with all 

drunken gravity from the sound of his own voice ; not his own 

fault : — 

" Wyte it the ale of Southwerk I you preye." 

In the Roxburghe and other collections of ballads we find ourselves 
among the actual scenes. Rude pictures head many of these old 
ballads ; there behind the lattice^ the idlers take down 

' ' The barley broth, 
Which is meat, and drink, and cloth." ^ 

and may be seen carousing and dicing and singing their ditties.* 

° A screen for the otherwise open window, giving ventilation and sufficient 
privacy. "Red Lattice phrases," z>., public-house talk (' Merry Wives, ' act ii. 
sc. 2). "The red Lettice in Southwarke shall bid thee welcome " (' A Fine Com- 
panion,' 1633). 

' The ballad of the 'Three Merry Coblers." 

^ One, a quaint specimen in praise of ale, in the Roxburghe collection, is as 
follows ; — 

' ' Three Gallants in a Taueme 
did brauely call for Wine ; 
But he that loues those Dainty Gates 

is sure no friend of mine ; 
Gwe me a cup of Barley broth, 

for this of truth is spoke. 
These Gallants drunke so hard that each 
was forct to pawne his Cloake ; 



THE BEAR AT THE BRIDGE-FOOT. 37 

Some of our alehouses and taverns deserve extended remark, as 
will be seen. On the map (3) is " Beere," that is Bear Alley, where 
the noted Bear was — "Ursa major at the Bridge foot," "the first 
house in Southwark built after the flood.'" The earliest notice, 
"after the flood,'' in 1 3 19 records that — "Thomas Drynkewatre, 
taverner of London, has built a place, the Bear, at the head of 
London Bridge, in the parish of St. Olaves." James Beauflur, who 
has taken it, has expended much money, and engages to sell no wines 
but Drynkewatre 's, who is to find handled mugs of silver and wood, 
curtains, cloths, and other things necessary for the Tavern." This 
is very much like some modern arrangements, as when a man 
has not quite money enough, it is to some extent provided by the 
distiller and the brewer. 

" The maddest of all the land came to bait the Bear," and, among 
the rest, the jovial parson, who on the week days learns of his 
companions, and " on Sundays does them teach." At the Bear, 
says one, " I stuffed myself with food and tipple till the hoops were 
ready to burst." But grave people also came here; the church- 
wardens of St. Olave's in 1568, and not in 1568 alone. The parish 
books tell us this. " It'm for iiij dinners at the Visitation, whereof 
one at the church hows and three at the Beare viij"xiij'" — fifty 
pounds now, at the least. "It'm p'd for drinkynge at y" Beare 
w*" Mr. Norryes P'son and certain of the Auncients of the parishe ; — 

The oyle of Barley neuer did 

such injmy doe to none, 
So, that they drinke what may suffice 
and afterwards be gone. " 
The burden is very absurd, but ends in the old way : — 
"There was a Ewe had three Lambes, 
and one of them was blacke ; 
There was a man had three sonnes, 

leffrey, lames and lacke ; 
The one was hang'd, the other drown'd, 

the third was lost and never found, 
The old man he fell in a sownd ; — 
come fill us a cup of Sacke." 
* ' Search after Claret,' 1691. 

^ In all probability the Bear at the bridge foot, a famous house, fourteenth, 
fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Riley, 'Mem,,' pp. 132-3. 



38 OLD SOUTIiWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

and another tyme at the same place for the lyke drynkynge 
v' iiij''." Amongst the St. Saviour's records are some quaint bills of 
about Shakespeare's time. The player, Edward AUeyn, who 
was a man of note, was then churchwarden and vestryman of 
the parish. Here is a bill of a vestry dinner : ' 

P"" for 3 Geese, 3 Capons and one Rabbit ... 00 14 08 

3 Tarts 00 12 00 

a Giblett pie makyng 00 02 08 

Beefe 01 02 06 

3 leggs of mutton 00 8 00 

wine and dresing the meat and naperie, 

fire, bread and beere 02 11 00 

18 oz [?] Tobacco and 12 pipes^ 00 01 02 

12 Lemmonds and 18 Oranges 00 03 00 



OS IS 00 



At the bottom are the words " taken the money out of the bagg 
to pay this bill." Other bills tell of "Sugar and Rosewater," 
" more for wine," " for a green goose," " Clarratt wyne." Another 
has a charge for " boiling of your Chickens and mutton," " for a 
quart of Sacke and a pint of white," "for naperie and sweet 
watter," and so on. 

The Bear was very handy ; it overlooked the river. A boat 
could be had at once to take you anywhere along the great high- 
way, which the Thames, with its hundreds or even thousands of 
boats, then was. It was a pleasing alternation from the vexations of 
parish business, but public-house pleasure does so encroach. The 
dignitaries of St. Saviour's seem to have felt this. In 1618 is this 
entry : " The vestrymen have been wont at the parish charge to 

have a dinner this day, but every man shall spend his own 

money at this dinner, and he who does not come shall pay 4''.'"' 
1614, May 23, " it is ordered that there shall be a drinkinge on the 

' Without date, but probably from 1600 to 1630. 

' In my own earlier time I have heard a long pipe nicknamed a church- 
warden. 

" I should think this came from Edward AUeyn ; it was in his careful style. 
He had been just elected a vestryman, and later on he was auditor. 



THE BEAR AND ITS LANDLORDS. 39 

p'ambulation day, for the company, according to the ancient 
custom, yet sparinglye because the corporation is indebted." 

Long before, in 1463, " Jockey of Norfolk," Sir John Howard, 
comes to the Bear to shoot at the Target and drink wine ; and the 
one acting probably on the other, he lost xx*. In 1554, 2 Philip 
and Mary, " Edmund Wythipolle conveys a quit rent out of a 
tavern called the Beare, to Henry Leke, Berebrewer, together with 
the Dolphin and its wharf, to the Thames, for i6l. i^s. \d. per 
annum." There are extant^ two tradesmen's tokens of the century 
1600 to 1 7CX), issued by occupiers of the Bear. One has on the 
obverse a bear with a chain, and the inscription, " Abraham 
Browne,^ at y"," and on the reverse, " Bridg Foot, South- 
wark"; in the centre, "his halfpenny." The other has on the 
obverse a bear passant with collar and chain, and the inscription, 
" Cornelius Cooke " ; on the reverse, "Beare at the Bridgefot." 
, This Cooke was j^ noted man ; he is mentioned in the St. Olave's 
\^" parish accounts "ad overseer of the land side as early as 1630 ; he 
was afterwards a soldier and captain of train bands ; he rose to be 
colonel in Cromwell's army, and was one of the commissioners for 
the sale of king's lands. After the Restoration he seems to have 
settled down as landlord of the Bear.lnPepys, 1666-7, notices the 
house ; the landlady, afflicted with melancholy, had drowned 
herself in the Thames ; the jovial secretary is the more troubled 
about it because " she was a most beautiful woman as most I have 
seen." Here the Duke of Richmond stole away Mrs. Stewart, the 
king's lady and perhaps the model of our figure of Britannia. " By 
a wile the Duke did fetch her to the Beare, where the coach was 
ready, but people think it is only a trick." Enough, except to say 
with Taylor, the water poet, — 

"No ravenous, savadge, cruel Beares are these, 
But gentle, milde, delighting still to please, 
And yet they have a trick to bite all such 
As madly use their company too much "; 

and to say with Corner that the house continued to entertain all 

' Comer's ' Inns of Southwark, ' p. 22. 

" The name had especial interest in Southwark ; the Montagues were Browns, 
and in connexion with a great trial in our own time, "the Montague Peerage," 
the Browns of Southwark have been well looked after. 



40 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

who could pay until 1761,' when the bridge was widened, and this 
and other houses thereon pulled down. On the demolition, many 
gold and silver pieces of Queen Elizabeth's time, and other moneys 
of much value were found. 

The Ram's Head (Map, 27), by the river, once the property of Sir 
John Fastolf, is noted by the searcher after claret, who finds food 
and sleeping there. He does not stay long, but hastens on " to the 
next bush," ^ the sign of the Leg in Boot. A token of the Ram's 
Head is known .^ 

The Green Dragon (Map, 12), the inn or hostel of the Cobhams 
who were great people of the time. The Lady Cobham, in her will, 
1 369, directed her " body to be buried by the south door of St. Mary 
Overy, before the door over which the blessed Virgin sitteth on 
high." In 143 1 the Green Dragon Inn, Southwark, is left by Sir R. 
Cobham, and is probably the same that is referred to in the will of 
Joan Cobham as her inn or hostel. In iS77j there is a dispute as 
to title. In 1637 " there cometh every week to the Green Dragon in 
Fowle Lane, near the meal market, a carrier from Tunbridge." In 
1680, the vestry deals with it and makes some orders ks to water 
running from it over the churchyard. In 1 700, the watercourse from 
the Dragon to Chain Gate is still troublesome. In 1732, " the South- 
wark Penny Post is kept in Green Dragon Court, near St. Mary 
Overy's Church, which collects, receives, conveys, and delivers 
letters and parcels to and from the following and adjacent places,'"* 
besides its own proper district in Southwark and London. Between 
the Green Dragon and the Chain gates of St. Saviour's is 

"The Bullhead, and many more places that make noses 
red," as says Satyrical Dick in the ' Last Search after Claret,' in 
1691. It is noted in 1698 as being near the church porch, the vault 
reaching to a brewhouse at hand ; 1 706, it is connected with an 

" On the trial of Margaret Clark, 1679, a soldier accused said he was only at 
the Bear to eat a barrel of oysters with his fair neighbour of next door to his 
lodging in the Seven Dials. 

■■ "Good wine needs no bush." Bush, a sign at the doors of such places. 

'' A list of tokens will, if space allows, be placed at the end of this article. 

' Noting ' ' Balam, Battersea-iyes, Burntash, Loughbeny house, Peckham town 
and Rcy," and some sixty other places from Woolwich to Clapham. New 
Remarks, 1732. 



SOME INNS OF SOUTHWARK. 41 

extension of the churchyard, which is continually becoming full, and 
running-, as it were, out over. There are, the old churchyard, a new 
churchyard, the " bull -head churchyard," and two more not far 
off. The walls and gates of the Bullhead churchyard are taken 
down in 1 706, and iron rails are put up. In 1 73 3 this inn is leased at 
11/. per annum. The Bullhead was one of the resorts of Edward 
AUeyn, as were also the Dancing Bears in Paris Garden, the Paul's 
Head, the King's Arms, the Red Cross, the Three Tunns in South- 
wark, and the Dolls next the Rose. A pleasant convivial man was 
AUeyn, and a man much liked, who apparently could touch pitch, 
and plenty of it, and not be defiled. In 16 19 he wishes to retire 
from the vestry ; he is living away. It is recorded in the minutes, 
that the vestry must leave it to him either to go or stay, " but they 
desire his company rather." (The Bolles Head, Map, 13.) 

The Salutation (Map, 78) is one of the many signs of houses 
bearing upon religious belief and usage ; referring that is to the 
Salutation of the Virgin. 

The St. Clement, here one and another in Tooley-Street. In 
St. Olave's Church, among other aisles and altars, was one to St. 
Clement, a saint suitable to a waterside parish, as one specially a 
helper of sailors and blacksmiths. (Map, 75.) 

The Christopher (Map, 47). This saint was a patron of travellers 
and pilgrims. A pilgrim of Chaucer's had " a Christofer on the 
breast of silver schene," it might be as a charm or amulet. The 
saint is seen in pictures fording a river, with the infant Christ on 
his shoulder, and leaning on a flowering rod. Christopher is a 
lucky saint. 

"The day that you see St. Christopher's face 
That day shall you not die an evil death." 

A fine painting of the legend of St. Christopher, carrying the Christ- 
child, is in our National Gallery, the gift of the Queen. 

The Gotte (Map, 76), near to the Market Place and Court 
House. The Copleys of the Maze, by their factotum, Donald 
Sharpies, have business here in 1575, on behalf of certain Papist 
prisoners in the White Lyon, whom the lords of the Maze desired 
to help. The King's Head (Map, 41 ), next the hospital gate, was burnt 
in the fire of 1676. The rent had been 60I. per annum, but it was 



42 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

now desired that the landlady, Mary Duffield, should build a good 
substantial inn and buildings/ and in consideration of her doing this 
the rent should be 38/. instead of 60/., and the tenure extended to 
48J years.' Taylor, in his 'Carriers' Cosmographie,' 1637, notes 
this as one of the inns and lodgings of the carriers " which come 
into the Burrough of Southwarke out of the countries of Kent, Sussex, 
and Surrey ; from Reygate to the Falcon ; Tunbridge, Seavenoake, 
and Steplehurst, at the Katherine Wheel ; and others from Sussex 
thither, Darking, and Ledderhead to the Greyhound " [where now 
is Union Street, the opening of which was the Greyhound 
and yard) ; " some to the Spurre, the George, the King's Head ; 
some lodge at the Tabbard, or Talbot ; many far and wide are 
to be had almost daily at the said inne, the White Hart." The 
Water Poet directs his little book to all good fellows. " The 
Tavernes are," he says, "of mine own finding and the vintoners 
my own friends " ; it is " welcome gentlemen ; a crust and what 
wine will you drink ? " And that you may not be at a loss 
in the Borough, he commends you to among others the Harrow ; 
the Horse, near the bridge ; the King's Head ; the Salutation in 
Bermondsey Street ; some at Rederhith ; and to the Mermayd, the 
Sun, and the Rose. In 1522, when Charles V. came over, note 
was taken of the capabilities of London this way : the return was 
1 1 wine merchants, 28 chief taverns, and the total of wine avail- 
able, 809 pipes. 

The White Hart (Map, 42) was, except the Tabard, our most 
noted inn; it has many old associations. Partly burnt in 1669, it cost 
700/. to repair ; the rent was then 55/. In 1676 it was entirely de- 
stroyed ; the leaseholder now rebuilt it at a cost of 2,400/. The old 
old premises had, like most other inns, become to some extent tene- 
ments ; the result of the gradual process from large roomy inn- 
yards to poor tenements is seen in the numerous courts, named of 
the old inns, which once entertained the highest folk, but which 
are now occupied by the poorest people, mostly leaning upon the 
relieving officer and the parish doctor in time of trouble and ill- 
ness. Another change is now going on ; the squalid courts are in 

' " The freehold property known as the King's Head Inn, with its buildings, 
some 35,000 feet, has been now sold for 35,000/.," Echo, August 29th, 1876. 
« Fire Decrees, Guildhall, Court of Judicature, 1677. 



THE WHITE HART. 43 

their turn disappearing-, and magnificent warehouses are taking 
their places; the Catherine Wheel, the Spur, and even those of 
great and old associations, such as the White Hart, the George, 
and the Tabard, are undergoing, or have undergone, this great 
transformation. The history of our inns furnishes landmarks 
of great social changes. 

The White Hart of our day is no part of it more than 170 years 
old ; a drawing of it was made by Fairholt for Corner's ' Ancient 
Inns of Southwark,' which, with a like one of the George, forms 
the frontispiece of his charming little monograph. These pictures 
are worth a thought ; the form which suited these places at the time 
they were used for plays and spectacles is so well seen even in 
these modern representations — the pit, gallery, and boxes, as it 
were. A verbal picture, done from the life, of the White Hart, is 
given with all the marvellous skill of Dickens in his Pickwick 
Papers, and he also gives a picture of the inn as it appeared " on 
the particular morning in question " when Mr. Pickwick's servant 
the unique Sam was there at his work. The White Hart dates 
back to 1400, and is known to the readers of Shakespeare and of 
history as the head-quarters of Jack Cade. Some rough work was 
done here then. One Hawarden, of St. Martin's, was beheaded 
at the White Hart ; the head of Lord Say was stricken off at the 
Standard in Chepe, put upon a pole, and borne before Cade's 
people, the body drawn at horse-tail upon the pavement from 
Chepe into Southwark to the captain's inn, after which doings the 
head was put on London Bridge and the body in quarters dis- 
tributed as sights for the people. 

Sir John Fastolf is mixed up with this affair, and the story of his 
servant, John Payn, is worth note.' Sir John is at this time living at 
his place in Southwark,^ and is a member of the King's Council ; 
accordingly his servant Payn is sent to Blackheath to know what 
"the captain " wanted. Cade denounces Fastolf as the greatest 
traitor in England ; his man Payn is treated as a spy, he is shown 
the axe and block, and is threatened, but is sent back to Southwark 

' ' Paston Letters, ' a most remarkable collection, illustrative of the period. 
Knight's edition, 2 vols., 1840 ; another more extended and complete, with 
valuable preface and notes, is Arber's edition, by James Gairdner, 1874. 

' Fastolfs Place, Stoney Lane, St. Olave's. 



44 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

to array himself in- the best wise he could, fitting him to help Cade 
and his people. The servant does not forget his master, but 
counsels him to put away his habiliments of war, and get away 
with his people from SouthwarV which Fastolf did readily enough. 
This mode of proceeding does not appear to have satisfied Cade ; 
the man had not quite done what was expected of him ; he is 
accordingly taken to the White Hart, and there by the Captain's 
orders is despoiled ' and threatened with death, but is saved by a 
man of note and family, Poynings, who is somehow sewer and 
carver to Cade, and had enlisted outlaws and' others in Southwark 
for the captain.* As it is, Payn's property in "Fastolf's rents" is 
pillaged, his wife' and children threatened to be hung, and he 
thrust into the battle in London Bridge and nigh killed there. This 
is his catalogue of griefs, for which he sought some compensation 
afterwards. 

This story of Cade and the White Hart would be without its use 
or its moral, and so far the mere antiquarian would be but a 
babbler concerning the past were he not to note somewhat the 
inner story of this outbreak. Authorities ' of the best are at hand 
to tell us all about it. The ruinous issue of the great struggle with 
France in the Joan of Arc time roused England to fury against 
the wretched government. De la Pole and the Bishop of Win- 
chester, the ministers concerned, were put to death. The words of 
Cade to Fastolf's servant — that " his master was the greatest traitor 
in England or France,' and had so minished the garrisons of Nor- 
mandy and Manns and Mayn as to lose the King his right of 

^ He appears to have been "a pradent soldier." 

' Of a fine gown furred with beavers, one pair of brigandines covered with 
blue velvet and gilt nails, with leg harness. Brigandine — a jacket quilted in with 
pieces of iron, usad by archers, enriched, as Payn's was, for pereons of more dis- 
tinction. 

■* This may refer probably to the prisoners of the ' ' Kynges Bench and Mar- 
chelsay delyveryd owte by Jake Cade's comniandement " (' Grey Friars Chronicle '), 
which Poynings at home in Southwark had no doubt previously prepared, both 
inside, and in the purlieus^outside the prisons. 

'' They leave the poor woman ' ' nothing but her kirtle and chemise. " 

o Green, ' Histoiy of the English People, ' p. 275 ; and Durrant Cooper's 
' Papers on Cade's Rebellion. ' 

7 Paston, Letter XXX., Knight's>dition. 



SIR JOHN FASTOLF. FIRES. 4S 

heritance beyond the sea " — these words were as evidence of what 
was uppermost in the public mind. They must have rung- out in 
Southwark ; and it is easy to conceive that the feeling was handed 
down and felt even in Shakespeare's time, and that there would be 
nothing too bad to be said of Fastolf, or Falstaff ; and this theory 
would account for his adoption, after the suppression of the name of 
Sir John Oldcastle, the first " fat knight," — probably from Papistical 
sources the prototype' of Falstaff; and there is, prejudice apart, a 
little more likeness in the character Falstaff to the man Fastolf 
than is allowed. But, to go a little further with our historian, it was 
not a rabble which followed Cade. " The captain " had been a 
soldier in the French wars ; he drew to himself some " tall men " of 
the country, and with some 20,000 men he marched from Blackheath 
into Southwark. " The complaint of the Commons of Kent " was 
laid before the Council. It demanded administrative and economical 
reforms, a change of ministers, and a restoration of freedom of 
election. Most important men resident in Southwark were with 
Cade or on his side : Richard Dartmouth, Abbot of Battle and of 
Battlebridge in Southwark, almost next door to Fastolf 's ; John 
Danyel, Prior of Lewes, another neighbour ; Robert Poyning-s, 
uncle of the Countess of Northumberland, and husband of Margaret 
Paston, who had people come to him in Southwark, aiding and 
encouraging. When the pardon time came, a most goodly list of 
names were recorded with which it was wise to deal leniently, and 
among the rest were " Holy Water Clerkes." 

We have had many fires in Southwark, especially fatal to the 
inns. They have been generally fastened upon some unlucky 
scapegoats; that in 1508 upon certain Scots and French ; that in 
1667 upon three Frenchmen, who fled. In 1689 there was a great 
fire ; " how it began no one knows, but there was one man very 
liberal of his tongue ; he was seized and brought before Mr. 
Justice Evans, who found him to be a Roman Catholic, having 
crucifixes, beads, and other trinkets about him. He was accordingly 
committed to the Marshalsea." ' But the most destructive fire was 
that of 1676. The scandal runs thus: — " Grover and his Irish 

» Broadsheet, Guildhall Library. 



46 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

ruffians burnt Southwark, and had i pool, for their pains. Gifford, a 
Jesuit, had the management of the fire.'" We have had to remove 
a like scandal from the base of the Monument as to the fire of 
London. I shall give the substance of a broadsheet published at 
the time.' The lamentable fire of Southwark, Friday, 26th May, 
1676, whereby those eminent " innes," the Queen's Head, Talbot, 
George, White Hart, King's Head, Green Dragon, together with 
the prison of the " Comter," the Meal Market, and about 500 dwell- 
ing-houses were burnt down, blown up, and wholly destroyed. It 
began at an oil-shop between the George and Talbot, the young 
people in the house with difficulty escaping through some back 
windows into the Talbot. Soon it caught an old timber house 
opposite ; the road, highway as it was, was narrow ; the houses at 
the upper part projected toward the road, were chiefly built of 
wood, and were now most of them old. Houses were now blown 
up, the Court House and the " Comter " among the rest, which pro- 
cess, although it failed to stay the progress of the fire toward St. 
Saviour's and the Hospital, saved the streets behind. St. Thomas's 
Hospital was saved by a change of wind ; the same happy wind 
saved the Church of the Hospital, as well as St. Saviour's, which 
must else have been destroyed. The George had been not long 
before rebuilt. The broadsheet proceeds, — " Three Crown Court 
is rubbish and ashes, the Meal Market standing in the middle of 
the street is consumed, and no sign is left to know where it stood. 
The Porch of the Hospital is broken down. St. Mary Overies 
took fire twice or thrice, but it was put out. The little Chapel at 
the east end is much pulled down and ruined, the houses near it 
were blown up ; but for this and the change of wind already 
referred to, the church must have been utterly destroyed. Front- 
ing south and to the east and west the church was enveloped in 
flames. All Foul Lane, the churchyard buildings, several alleys, one 
side of street over to St. Mary Overies Dock are gone. Twenty or 
more people are killed and many wounded." Corner gives another 
reason why the fire spared St. Thomas's Hospital : the building 
was substantial, and had been recently erected." The tablet 

° Corner, ' Inns of Southwark,' citing the Diary of tlie Rev. John Ward. 
' I'liblished by permission, Roger V Estrange, Guildhall Libraiy. 
* Only partially. " 1694. The Hospital is very old, low, and damp ; we have 
spent 2,000/., and cannot go on with it." — MS. 2734, British Museum, 



THE FIRE OF 1676. 47 

over the door of the old court-room gives thanks for the 
mercy : — 

" Laus Deo. 

" Upon the 26th May, 1676, and in the 28th year of the reign of 
our Sovereign Lord King Charles II., about three of the clock in 
the morning, over against S* Margarets Hill, in the Borough- of 
Southwark, there happened a most lamentable and dreadful fire, 
which, before ten of the clock at night, consumed about five hun- 
dred houses. But in the midst of judgment God remembered 
mercy, and by his goodness in considering the poor and distressed 
put a stop to the fire at this home, after it had been touched several 
times therewith, by which, in all p'-obability, all this side of the 
Borough was preserved. This tablet is here put, that whoso 
readeth it may give thanks to the Almighty God, to whom alone 
is due the honour and praise. Amen." One must admire the 
sentiments here expressed, but one would like ,to add, " another 
time take more care in building, widen the streets, provide for 
plentiful water, and be very careful as to domestic fires and lights. 
In short, respect the laws of the Almighty if you- would wish to be 
preserved." Some regulations of the hospital, 1647, show how 
the governors estimated the dangers of fire.' The precautions in 
a city of wooden houses and narrow streets were as curious as 
those of the hospital governors — " a barrel of water before each 
house." * The St. Saviour's vestry are busy, so the parish papers say. 
I note that .the roof and east part of the chapel are burnt and 
demolished ; the chaplain is burnt out, and needs a house and a 
little money. There are negotiations for " a water-house to be built 
in the park near at hand." 16S2. They agree with " Mr. Jackson, 
master of the Water House in Horsleydown, for a ffirecock at the 
place where the meale market stood, and another elsewhere," and 
next year the well-house is seen to. 

The ruin was so great, so complete, that the landmarks were lost, 
and it was found necessary to make, 29 Charles II. c. 4, "An act for 
erecting a judicature to determine differences touching houses burnt 

' The orders for prevention seem ludicrous : ' ' Fire is not to be carried from 
one place to another in bottles or any wooden vessel." MS. 2734, B.M. 
■* I own the prompt use of a barrel ai the door might stop a fire in its birth. 



48 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

and demolished by the late dreadful fire in Southwark." The 
names of the commissioners, some twenty-one, besides judges and 
aldermen, are given in Corner's ' Inns,' p. 13, and comprise the two 
members for the Borough, Richard Howe and Peter Rich. A few 
items from these decrees are interesting." The Compter occupied 
part of the old church site of St. Margaret's. " The Mayor and 
Commonalty did in 1664 demise the Compter and a ten' adjoining, to 
W" Eyre as Bayliffe of the Libertyes and manner of said Mayor, 
&c., and as keeper of the gaol and prison called the Compter, at a 
rent of 50/. The city does not surrender lease, but will not 
rebuild a prison there, will grant reasonable terms for other 
buildings ; the bayliffe may surrender, if he will surrender his office 
too." 

Very much property belongs to the Browkers, an old name in 
St. Saviour's. The Browkers appear to be going down ; one of 
them is in the Marshalsea ; and the Hows, rich people of Christ 
Church parish, often appear as owners instead. The Overmans 
are large owners, especially about Montague Close. 

Much gunpowder was used ; many houses have the words " blown 
up," or " shattered by explosions." " Property next the West 
Chain Gate over against the stables of the house, sometimes called 
Winchester House," is noted. In the decrees is note of a rather dis- 
creditable and general attempt at encroachments, opportunity taken 
for a general scramble to place posts some two or three feet in 
advance of the " ancient posts," even obstructing the way to market ; 
detected by being beyond the old foundations. A long judgment 
follows, declaring the old boundaries. 

Not many inns remain to be noticed, and of these, only two, the 
Tabard and the Boar's Head, require many words. The George 
(Map, 43), an inn described by Stow as north of the Tabard, some 
angry poetaster denounces for its bad sack. He says : — 

"The Devill would abhorre such posset-drink, 
Bacchus, I'm sure, detests it, 'tis too bad 
For Hereticks ; a Friar would be mad 



5 I have met with much courtesy in the City. I was permitted to copy what I 
desired of the fire decrees from the volume in the Town Clerk's office ; further I 
most warmly thank Mr. Overall, and his Assistant, for uniform help and kindness. 



INNS WITH RELIGIOUS SIGNS, &C. 49 

To blesse such vile imconsecrable stuffe, 

And Brownists would conclude it good enough 

For such a Sacrifice." ^ 

The poet had taken a surfeit at the George, and this is the way he 
vented his wrath. In 1670 the inn had been nearly burnt. In the 
decrees it is noted that the rent had been 150/., but after the iire 
the landlord rebuilt it, and his rent was reduced " to 80/. and a 
sugar loafe " ; now totally destroyed, he again rebuilds, and his rent 
is "50/. and a sugar loafe." The Cross Keys, Crowned or 
Cross'd Keys, like its neighbour the Christopher, named after holy 
emblems; thisfrom the arms of the papacy. In 1518,1521,^ andagain, 
are entries of 40", a half year's rent paid to Edward and Sir Edward 
Poynings' for the Crowned Keys in Southwark. Elizabeth 
Poynings,' Sir Edward's mother, and widow of Robert, Cade's 
sword bearer and carver, writes ( 1470) from one of her residences 
in Southwark that her property is in some danger from relations 
and friends, and she is making a stout fight about it. The Holy 
Water Sprinklers, The Three Brushes, were signs of houses, and 
like the Cross Keys were probably, as those of the Saints, Saluta- 
tion, and like names, given before the dissolution, when the land- 
lords generally belonged to abbeys and other ecclesiastical 
foundations. The Spur (Map, 48) — Mr. Corner saw deeds of this 
inn so early as 1596; our Map shows it long before that. The 
Horshead becomes The Nag's Head ; The Blue Maid becomes 
The Blue-Eyed Maid (Map, 49, 52). The last name often turns up 
in the Southwark Fair frolics : Lee and Harper's booth is on the 
Bowling Green at the lower end of Blue Maid Alley ; Mr. and Mrs. 
Yeates' for the Beggar's Opera, at the great tiled booth, tickets are 
to be had at the Blue Maid and the Faulcon. " Mrs. Yeates intreats 
those Ladies and Gentlemen who intend to honour her with their 
company to come early, being determin'd to begin at the Time 
prefix'd ; and she begs Leave to assure them, that the whole will 

* Musarum Delicise, vol. i., p. 46. 1656. (Reprint.) 

'.Calendars, State Papers. 

" I notice many Southwark names besides this of Poynings in the Shakespearean 
Plays. Poynings was Lord Deputy of Ireland, and died of a pestilential fever 
in 1522. 

' ' Paston Letters,' p. 249, Knight's ed. 



50 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

be conducted with the utmost Decorum," not at all an unnecessary 
notice, the particulars of some of these littie play bills ^ being 
exceedingly free. The White Lion inn was near the bridge, 
where the north wing of St. Thomas's Hospital yet stands. 
Among the records of the Court of Augmentations, 36th Henry 
VIII., IS44-5, are the particulars of a grant by the king to 
Robert Cursen, as part of the possessions of the dissolved monastery 
of St. Mary Overy, "The Whyte Lyon" in the parish of the 
blessed Mary Magdalen '^ in Southwark. It was (29th Henry VIII.) 
in the tenure of Henry Mynce, and was by indenture demised to 
him from Christmas Day the last, for the term of thirty years, at 
the yearly rent of sixty shillings, repairs at the king's charge, 
except the glazing and emptying the privies and cesspools. The 
White Lyon Prison, which has been confounded with the inn by 
reason of Stow's words that the prison had been an inn, was far 
away, near to St. George's Church. 

THE TABARD, made immortal by the name and tales of Geof- 
frey Chaucer, cannot be passed with short notice ; to do it justice 
would require a paper all to itself, which, if money were unlimited 
or subscribers numerous, it should have ; but the law of necessity 
must be obeyed. The story of the Canterbury Pilgrimage has 
made the place " and the inn famous, and as time goes on we be- 
come more familiar with Chaucer and the Tabard. It is repre- 
sented, how one morning in May, a cavalcade of pilgrims was 
waiting at the inn ready to start for Canterbury, the host of the 
Tabard being their leader, and " Sir Geffery Chaucer " their chro- 
nicler, the rest made up of typical people representatives of the 
time. To beguile the way each one, fit or unfit, was to tell a 
story : — 

"This is the poynt [says the host], to speken schort and playn, 
That ech of yow to schort-e with youre weie, 
In this vi-age, schal tell-e tal-es tweye, 

• Of which bills and advertisements I have about fifty, from Fillingham's 
collection. 

' Note, the then small parish was not St. Mary Overy, but St. Maiy Magdalen. 

' It is even possible thai at some future time friends in their talk may say, 
" Southwark ? why that 's the place where Chaucer was with his pilgi-ims at the 
Tabard Inn, wasn't it ? " So we may be known ! 



CHAUCER AND THE TABARD. 51 

To Canterburi-waid, I mene it so, 

And home-ward he schal telleii other two, 

Of aventu-res that ther hau bifalle." 

The pilgrims settled all this the night before, and the one who 
best performed his task was to have a " soper " at the cost of the 
others. They are of glad heart, they like his plan, they ask him 
to be their goi'ernour, to judge of the tales, and, prudent people, 
to set the soper at a certain price. All this business was arranged 
at the Tabard ; " then they dronken and wente to reste." When the 
day beg-an to spring-, the host, like the cock which crowed in the 
morn, was up ; he gathered his flock, and out they rode together. 
The poet describes hh feelings, how it all came about ; and, whe- 
ther his company be visionary or not, with him it was a picture 
from the life. An intense lover of nature, he begins with " April 
and the rain, which had softened old March, with his cold windy 
ways piercing to the root, and had bathed in sweet liquor the 
flower, — how the pleasant zephyr with his sweet breath had 
ushered in every holte and heathe the tendre croppes, how the 
birds made melodie, how, in short, nature had given courage to 
every living thing, and what with the pleasant ways and the new 
made liveliness of man and woman answering to nature, it made 
them all longen to go on pilgrimage." The machinery of the 
story is as true to nature as it is apt and beautiful. The pilgrims 
who are supposed to start from the Tabard are types of every 
class, bad, good, and indifferent, which then formed all but the 
highest and the extreme lowest of English society. None of them 
is very reticent ; they speak out after their kind. Chaucer's verse 
may seem difficult and repulsive at first, but after a little study of 
the mode of pronouncing so as to preserve the rhythm, all is well. 
Some of our best poets have essayed to imitate and modernize, 
but mastering, as is easily done, the original, no one would read 
again the best of the paraphrases. Mrs. Haweis,^ with a little par- 
donable hero-worship, tells us he is a religious poet ; that all his 
merriest stories have a fair moral — that even the coarse' are 
rather naive than injurious ; how his pages breathe a genuine faith 



■* ' Chaucer for Children ; a Golden Key. ' 
■' With an exception or two. 



E 3 



52 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

in God, and a passionate sense of the beauty and harmony of the 
divine work. So far for his character and works. Let us now see 
the man. I dare say he is faithfully represented in that portrait of 
his in the British Museum," and Mr. Furnivall has helped us to 
Greene's vision of him.' 

Description of Sir Geffery Chaucer. 
" His stature was not very tall ; 

Leane he was ; his legs were small, 

Hosd within a stock of red ; 

A buttond bonnet on his head, 

From under which did hang, I weene, 

Silver haires both bright and sheene. 

His beard was white, trimmed round ; 

His countenance blithe and merry found. 

A sleeveless jacket, large and wide, 

With many pleights and skirt-es side, 

Of water chamlet, did he weare ; 

A whittell by his belte he beare. 

His shooes wei-e corned broad before ; 

His Inckehorne at his side he wore, 

And in his hand he bore a booke : 

Thus did the aimtient Poet looke." 

William Bullein gives in iS73 a more poetical description of the 
poet. "Wittie Chaucer," says he, "satte in a Chaire of gold 
covered with Roses, writing prose and risme, accompanied with 
the Spirites of many kyngs, knightes, and faire ladies." He was 
born about 1340, and was the son of John Chaucer,* vintner, in 
Thames Street. There are many other Chaucers about : Richard, 
1 320, buried in the Hospital of St. Thomas, who had houses in St. 
Olave's, near the Stulps ; William Chaucer, churchwarden of St. 
Margaret's long after. Geoffrey is. a student of the Bohemian 
type ; a disciple of Gower perhaps, but a disciple of Venus certainly.' 
The vintner's shop was, no doubt, what we call " select," or the 
youth might not so soon have found his way up. He soon becomes 

' Harleian MS., 4866, so charmingly photographed for Mr. Furnivall's 'Life 
Records of Chaucer,' Chaucer Society, 1876. 

' Greene, 1592. 

* Not Richard, as in ' Memorials of London, ' xxxiv. 

" As the deed of release between him and Cecilia Champaigne, 1379, may, 
with much probability, show ; and his address to his pitiless mistress also. 



CHAUCER. 53 

page to the wife of the King's son Lionel, and gets his livery of a 
short cloak, pair of red and black breeches, and shoes, with 3^. 6(/. 
in his pocket for necessaries. About nineteen he becomes a soldier 
and a prisoner, and is ransomed by the King's help ; by-and-by he 
is valet to Edward III. ; then he is yeoman of the King's chamber, — 
his duty to make beddes, hold torches, set boards, watch the King, 
and go on messages,^ his salary ^ about 20 marks' by the year. 
About 1360 he marries Philippa Roet, one of Queen Philippa's maids,^ 
who is sister to Margaret Swynford, the mistress, governess, and 
wife of John of Gaunt. He fills the various stations of valet, soldier, 
esquire of the King's household, an envoy on many foreign missions ; 
he is comptroller of the customs for wool, wool-fells, and hides, which 
must have brought him into frequent contact with Southwark. He 
was also Clerk of the Works, and a Member of Parliament. In 1 390 
he is a sort of sanitary commissioner, looking after ditches, sewers, 
and outfalls. The income of the husband and wife in Edward III.'s 
time was about 40I. per annum ;^ i394, about 30/.; after 1398, 
61Z. 13^. 4^. ; and these sums mean now about ten times the stated 
amount. They have allowances of wine, a daily pitcher in 1374, 
cloth for mourning in 1369 for Geoffrey Chaucer and Philippa 
Chaucer on the death of Queen Phillipa — three elles for him and 
six for the lady, an allowance of some one or two pounds a year 
for clothes, and gifts and some consideration from higher friends. 
In 1386 he is Knight of the Shire for Kent, and has eight shillings 
a day for his wages. 

Some inquiries into abuses — "a terrible list" — were set on foot 
by the so-called " Merciless Parliament," ^ and soon after Chaucer 
is dismissed from his office. As some of his work was done 
by deputies, and some appears to have been of the nature of 
sinecure, and as his patron, John of Gaunt, and his friends, were 
not always popular, it may not have been that any actual corruption 
was charged. One must think well of the three — Wiclif, the 

' Fumivall, 'Life Records.' 

' Nicholas. 

^ A mark, 13^. /[d., equal about to a purchas"e of 6/. 12s. now. 

' "Phillippa Chaucer una Domicellanim CamerEC Phillippse Regince Anglic." 

= SirH. Nicolas, 'Chaucer.' 

^ Green, 



54 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

greatest of the new prose writers, Chaucer, of the new poetry, 
and John of Gaunt, their fast friend/ In 1388 he feels the pinch 
in his fortunes, and anticipates money on his pensions, and now 
begins his " Canterbury Tales " ; 1 389, things mend a bit— the King 
makes him Clerk of Works, at 2s. a day; in 1391, this office 
ends, and he has to make the two ends meet irpon say 2s. a day, 
which means, as to what it would purchase, i/. In 1394 he is, for 
him, very poor ; he borrows money, and the brother-in-law of the 
Duke of Lancaster has to anticipate his income by little instalments. 
But he is not quite forgotten ; the King gives some work and some 
help, and, significant fact, he is allowed protection from arrest. 
The poet lives some few years after this, dying, it is said, on the 
25th October, 1400, at the age of seventy-two. He seems to take 
his reverses philosophically, one time, saying — 

' ' All that is given, take with cheerfulness ; 
To wrestle in this world is to ask a fall. 
Here is no home ; here is but a wilderness ";' 

another time, in grim humour, apostrophizing his empty purse — 

' ' To you, my Purse, and to none oth A wight, 
Complayne I, for ye be my Ladie dere ; 
I am sorie now that ye be light, 
For certes now ye make me heavie chere ; 
Me were as lefe laide upon a bere, 
For which unto your mercy thus I crie, 
Be heavie againe, or else mote I die. 
Ye be my life, ye be my hertes stere ; 
Queen of good comfort, and of good companie.'' 

He says, still addressing his empty purse, that he is shaven close 
as any frere, and appeals unto the courtesie of his purse to be 
heavie againe, or else he must die. My scope will not allow 
sketches of the pilgrims who started that May morning for Canter- 
bury. The rich church of St. Margaret's was opposite, with its 
gild of brotherhood. It was one of the duties of gilds " to give help 

' The more so as Chaucer satirizes the monk who loved venerie ; the prioress 
simple and coy ; the friar, wanton and meriy ; the sumpnour, with his fire-red face ; 
the pardoner, who went about wtth his "pigges bones as relics "; and yet gives 
that divine picture of " the poore parson." 

' Mrs. plaweis's version. 

» 'English Gilds,' p, 157: releasing the pilgrims' contributions to the gild; 



THE ABBOT OF HYDE, AND THE TAlBARD. 5S 

and countenance to pilgrims. No doubt some would go across the 
way for a last service and for the benediction of the brotherhood 
at St. Margaret's ; and they might get a few cheering words from 
the Bretheren and Sisteren at St. George's in their way. Be that 
as it may, we see them through Kent Street, as far as St. Thomas 
a Watering, the outermost boundary of Southwark that way, and 
so leave them.^ 

But what of the famous inn and its sign, the Tabard at first; the 
Talbot about 1676, changed by fancy, or because one word slips 
phonetically so easily into another ? Aubrey, whose authority must 
be carefully taken, puts the change down to an ignorant landlord 
reading Talbot a dog, for Tabard a coat ; in our Map (44) it is, 
however, Tabete for Tabard, called after the herald's coat, or a coat 
ornamented and used by kings at coronations or by noblemen in 
the wars, or not so ornamented by a clown— a sort of jacket or 
ordinary coat ;" and so the inn got its name.' The inn was the pro- 
perty of the Abbot of Hyde, near Winchester, who had his town 
house here (Map, 45 ) . In 1 304 the Abbot and convent purchase two 
houses in Southwark, for which a rent and suit to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury's court in Southwark was due ; value clear, 40s. In 
1 307 the Bishop of Winchester licenses a chapel at the Abbot's 
Hospitium, in the parish of St. Margaret, Southwark. At the Dis- 
solution this inn, with other possessions of Abbot Salcote or Capon, 
was surrendered, and was granted by the King to Thomas and 
John Master. It is noted in the surrender as " one hostelry, called 
the Taberd, the Abbot's place,, the Abbot's stable, the garden 
belonging, a dung-place leading to the ditch going to the Thames." 
The same ditch is apparently represented in the sewer maps of so 
late as a hundred years ago in the rear of the inns, emptying into 

177, to help pilgrims; 180, to go a little way with the pilgrim, and give him 
something toward his journey ; 231, to keep a house and beds for poor pilgrims. 

' .So far chiefly indebted to Sir H. Nicolas, and to Mr. Fumivall, the foimder 
of the Chaucer Society. 

' At the coronation of Henry VII. was put on the King a taberd of Tarteiyn, 
white, shaped in the manner of a dalmatick (' Rutland Papers '). — A dispute, 1276, 
about vesper time ; one killed another with a knife ; the murderer's goods were one 
tabard, value lod., one hatchet, one bow and arrows, value 2d,, &c. (Riley), 

' Comer's excellent account, ' Inns of Southwark. ' 



S6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the Thames at the Bridge Yard sluice.'' The inn and buildings 
were represented as one arrow-shot from His Majesty's house and 
park in Southwark— the Maner Place and Park of the Map. 
The annual rent of the inn is fixed in 1539 at 9/. for a term of 
forty-one years. The Abbot of Hyde, like many another, was re- 
warded for facile behaviour toward the King. He had the Bishopric 
of Salisbury, and he held it until 1557. In 1636, in the St. Saviour's 
records, it is the Talbutt, owned by William Garfoote, gentleman, 
dwelling at Ingerstone, and is undergoing the process toward 
tenements : before this, 1634, it is returned as a new building of 
brick, built some six years past upon old foundations. There are 
many pictures of the Tabard — of the ancient timber house,^ probably 
as old as Chaucer's time, entirely destroyed in the great fire of 
1676,^ and of the one then built. It is recorded in Speght's 
' Chaucer,' 1598, that the old house, that is the Tabard of Chaucer, 
" was much decayed, and that Master J. Preston had newly repaired 
it, with the Abbot's house adjoining ; had also added convenient 
rooms for the receipt of many guests." 

Inns, it is said, bring, one way or another, plenty of sorrow. A 
little quaint fun the other way may be culled from " John Taylor's' 
travels through more than thirty times twelve signs." He found 
the twelve : Aries and Taurus in the Rams and Rams' Heads, the 
Bulls and the Bulls' Heads ; Scorpio, no doubt, in the Green Dragon ; 
Ursa Major at the Bridge Foot St. Olave's, and so on ; the Anker, 
in St. Olave's and at the end of Bermondsey Street. The poet 
commits a little doggrel about each one : — 

' ' Some men have found their Ankers veiy able 
To More them safe & fast without a Cable. 
A man may Load himself, and Sleepe and Ride 
Free from Storms, Tempests, Pirats, Wind and Tide." 

* Gwilt. 

' In Urry's 'Chaucer,' fol. 1721, in a copy in iht Mirror, vol. xxii., and in 
Saunders's nice paper. Knight's ' London,' vol. i. It had a swinging sign over the 
road. 

« Corner. See also an admirable article. Builder, July 5, 1873. 
' The works of John Taylor, the 'Water Poet, not included in the folio vol., 
1630. Spencer Society, 1876, 



THE WATER POET ON THE INNS. 57 

The Bell, at St. Thomas's, in Southwark ; — 

' ' These bels are never tol'd with Rope in Steeple, 
Yet there 's od Jangling 'mongst od kind of people ; 
And all these Bels at once are dayly Rung 
With 2 strange Clappers, Pewter and the Tongue." 

The Bull Head, in the Borough of Southwark ; Bull blacke : — 

" These Bulls were never Calves, nor came of Kine, 
Vet at all seasons they doe yeeld good wine ; 
But those that suck these Buls more than they ought 
Are Waltham Calves, much better fed than taught." 

Cardinall's Hatt : — 

' ' We are much better pleas'd with the bare Signe 
Than with the Hat or Card'nale — There 's good Wine." 

The Christopher : — 

" I Read that Christopher once usde the Trade, 
A Mighty dangerous river ore to wade ; 
And, having left the Water, 'tis thought meet 
To set him here for Wine in this our street. '' 

Dragon, in Southwarke, neere St. Georg's Church ; — 

" These Dragons onely bite and sting all such 
As doe immod'ratly haunt them too much ; 
But those that use them well, from them shall finde 
Joy to the Heart, and Comfort to the Minde." 

He notices the Faulcon, which did never " stoope to the Lure, 
nor mire, nor droope "; the " Flower de Lices," which sell French 
wine, very likeable on trying. 

The White Hart :— 

" Although these Harts doe never runne away. 
They '11 tire a Man to hunt them eveiy day ; 
The Game and Chase is good for Recreation, 
But dangerous to mak't an occupation." 

The King's Head, in Horsey Downe : — 

" The sight whereof should men to Temp'rance win ; 
To come as sober out as they went in." 



58 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

The Lyon, near St. George's Church, in Southwarke, and another 
near the Water Gate, St. Olave's : — 

' ' These Lyons are exceeding milde and tame ; 
Yet oft, in least, tliey 'II claw a man starke lame. 
Play with them temperately, or looke to find 
A Lyon in the end will shew his kind. " 

The Lamb : — 

"They yield us cloathes to weare, and meat to live ; 
But nothing else but drinke this Lambe doth give.'' 

The Mermayd in the Burrough of Southwarke : — 

" This Maytl is strange in shape ; to Man's appearing 
Shee 's neither Fish or Flesh, nor good Red hearing : 
What is shee then ? a Signe to represent 
Fish, Flesh, good Wine, with welcome and Content.'' 

The Ram's Head in St. Olave's, in Southwarke : — 

' ' At Ram or Ramshead be it knowne to all 
Are Wines predominant and Capital], 
To set a Horseman quite beside the Saddle 
And make a Footman's Pericranion Addle. '' 

He notes many others, but I forbear the rhymes, and finish with 
the Windemill : — 

" No Mealemouth'd Miller keeps this Mill, I know ; 
And let the wind blow either high or low, 
Hee 's kindly taking Toll ; and at his Mill 
Is Wine exceeding good, and Welcome still. " 

That is pretty well for John Taylor, waterman, writer of plays, 
and censor of morals. He has his play at the Hope' — "The 
lustre of all watermen | to row with scull, or write with pen." | O 
had he still kept on the water, | and never come upon Thekter, | he 
might have lived full merrily, | and not have died so lowsily. | O 
'twas that foolish scurvie play | at Hope that took his sence away." | 
He lives handy by St. Saviour's ; " two plasterers at work for me 
at my house in Southwarke." And he seems to know Sir Edward 
Dyer the poet, at the Warden's Gate. In his capacity of water- 

» Works, 1630, p. 161. 
» Ibid., p, 153. 



FASTOLF AND THE BOARS HEAD. 59 

man he lands an old fellow at the "Beares Colledge " on the 
Bankside, alias Paris Garden ; but here he is among the stews, 
and his writing- tastes of the locality. 

But one more of these inns remains to be noticed — the Boar's 
Head in the Map (37), immediately north of St. Thomas's Hospital, 
probably one of the two unnamed. Boar's Head Court, which 
represented the old inn, was situate between Nos. 25 and 26 of the 
old High Street, and was cleared away for the London Bridge 
approaches about 1830. Its site was after that included in the 
frontage of St. Thomas's Hospital, and is now covered by the rail- 
way approaches. Almost equidistant from the City end of the old 
bridge, as this from the Southwark end, was the Boar's Head of 
Shakespeare's plays.^ It is curious that the City inn was the scene 
of the revelries of Prince Hal and his fat friend, Sir John Falstaff ; 
and that the other, the Southwark inn, was the property of a 
Sir John Fastolf. In 1459 Henry Wyndesore, one of Fastolf's 
household, reminds Paston" to ask his master whether the old 
promise shall stand as to the Boar's Head in Southwark, as but for 
that promise he would, he says, have been in another place. 
Wyndesore seems uneasy about it, and well he might be, as Fastolf 
was mean to his servants: "get all and give little" might have 
been his motto, and he allowed them to hope on. In the church- 
wardens' accounts, St. Olave's, 16 14- 15, is noted, that John Barlow, 
" who dwelleth at ye Boar's Head in Southwark, pays 4^ a year 
for an encroachment at the corner of the wall in ye Flemish church- 
yard." Mr. Halliwell had a rare brass token — "At the Bores 
Head — In Southwark, 1649 " ; in the field " ^^ " : there is another 
in the Beaufoy collection. No. 895 . The point of interest about this 
inn is centred in the fact that its owner was Sir John Fastolf, of 

' In a new selection from City records now being published, is a most interest- 
ing fact connected with the Boar's Head in East cheap — a license for the performance 
of plays there in the thick of the Shakspearean time, 1602. "The Lords of the 
Council to the Lord Mayor," "granting permission to the servants of the Earl of 
Oxford and the Earl of Worcester to play at the Boar's Head in Eastchepe " 
('Remembrancia,' 1878). The back of the City inn looked upon the burying- 
ground of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, as that of the Boar's Head in Southwark 
looked upon the Flemish and parish burying-ground east of the inn. The statue 
of William IV. nearly marks the site of the former. 

' ' Paston Letters,' 122, Knight's edition. 



6o OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Stoney Street St. Olave's Southwark, and of Caistor Castle, 
Norfolk." The old knight's house, " Fastolf 's Place, in Southwark," 
was grand enough to receive distinguished nobles. It was a place 
of such pretension as to be called a palace, and was coveted, in the 
after-scramble for the knight's property, by the Duke of Exeter In 
1459. Here the mother of the Duke of York, afterwards Edward 
the Fourth, and her family were lodged once on occasion. Again, 
William of Worcester, a distinguished chronicler of the time, and 
Fastolf's retainer, says, the Parliament being dissolved, the King, 
Henry VI., held the feast of Christmas at Leicester ; but James 
Ormond, Count of Wiltshire, remained at the same feast at the 
house of Sir John Fastolf, in Southwark. So late as 1620, in a 
Sewars' Presentment, the officials " saie that the sewar or pissen 
from ffostal place all along the west side of Stonie Lane to the 
head thereof ought to be cast and clensed, and the wharfes repaired ; 
every one makinge defaulte to forf for everz'^ pole, v°." 

In the Cade rebellion the house was filled with soldiers and 
munitions of war, for which, said the rebels, " Sir John's house in 
Southwark should be burned down and all his tenuries." It was 
known that he had large possessions in Southwark. No less than 
377 deeds relating to them are at Magdalen College, Oxford. There 
were goods " known only to two or three at Bermondsey Abbey." 
In 1470 Paston his relative and manager had after his death to 
deliver up his deeds at the Priory of St. Mary Overy, to be kept 
there in safety, in a chest having two locks and two keys. The 
Bishop (Waynfiete) living as it were next door, namely at 
Winchester House, and being Fastolf's executor, is to have one 
of the keys and Paston the other. Among these properties of his 
in Southwark are noted : — " the High Bere House, le Boreas Head, 
le Harte Home, alias le Bucke Head, Watermills, Dough Mills, 
tenements and gardens called Walles and le Dyhouse." 

In 1 72 1 Magdalen College does not give a good account of the 
benefactions they had at the death of Sir John Fastolf. It is, 
however, clear that they had various tenements : one, the Old 
Boar's Head Inn, was part of Sir John's gift and brought to the 

" Other Fastolfs appear in Southwark: John, 1437-1439 ; Richard, "aTayl- 
luur"; and Thomas, "a Soiidiour," 1460-1470. 



FASTOLF AND SIIAKESrEARE's PLAYS. 6l 

College 150/. per annum. Timbs, an old inhabitant of Southwark, 
and a diligent antiquarian, says this is true ; * that the Boar's 
Head Court was for many years let to his family at 150/. per 
annum, and was by them sublet chiefly to weekly tenants. It had, 
in his time, two rows of tenements vts-A-vis, and two at the east 
end, with galleries to the first floors, eleven in all, fronted with 
strong weather-boards. The balusters of great age, and beneath 
the whole extent of the court was a finely vaulted cellar. 

Sir John was a general, distinguished more or less in the French 
wars of the time of Joan of Arc. It is said that he had a some- 
what superstitious dread of her; he seems to have been weak 
that way, and that was the cause of the apparently pusillanimous 
conduct which brought upon him the imputation of cowardice, and 
the disgrace which followed. Sir John is a prominent character 
in the ' Paston Letters '; he is a friend of Bishop Waynfiete of 
Winchester House, close at hand ; he is a patron of Caxton, the 
printer ; and through the Bishop, a magnificent donor at least in 
intent, to Magdalen College, Oxford,' the Bore's Head being part 
of his benefaction. The name, if it does nothing more, inevitably 
suggests Falstaff. 

The character of Falstaff is one of the most wonderful of 
Shakespeare's creations; and the question, Was there a living 
model ? has occupied the literary world from Fuller and the writer 
in the 'Biographia Britannica' down to our more modern notables, 
Halliwell, Gairdner, and others. Was there a type at all ? Or 
was the character the creation of the poet's brain, with some 
misty aftershadowings from the life ? The leading character of a 
play called ' Sir John Oldcastle,' which before occupied the stage, 
was Sir John himself, changed into a Falstaff. It is thought 
that some remonstrance was made as to the taking the name of 
such a man as the type of a low buffoon ; be that as it may, the 
best authority, Shakespeare himself, disowns such an adoption, 
"One word more," he says," "if you be not too much cloid with 
Fat Meate, meaning the fat knight with the great belly doublet, 

* Notes and Queries, second Series, vol. v. p. 84. Signed, J. Timbs. 
' It is said not ; but I suppose much of Fastolf s property did reacli tlie 
college through Waynfiete, Fastolf 's executor, and founder of the college. 
^ Epilogue to the second part of King Heniy IV. 



62 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, 
where Falstaff shall die of a sweat. OUcastk died a martyr; and 
this is not the man.'''' Probably the adoption, in the first play, of 
' Sir John Oldcastle ' was a touch of spite on the part of some 
Jesuitical person to kill the reputation, as they had cruelly killed 
the man, Oldcastle, or Cobham, a bright name in our history, 
was burnt to death slowly for being a Christian, — that is, of an 
active and troublesome turn, — -for Lollardy after the reforming 
manner of Wickliffe; but \\Q."was not_ the man."'' That Falstaff 
should be Fastolf, and conversely, is almost too obvious to be 
believed, and no doubt it cannot be that this knight was the 
complete type ; but there is far more ground for the supposition 
than in the other case, and that Fastolf dwelt much in Shake- 
speare's mind— the Fastolf of Southwark I mean — is evident. He 
was in his own name introduced in the first part of ' King Henry 
VI.' as the " man who played the coward and left Talbot to be 
taken." Whether Shakespeare wrote this character or not, it is 
so placed in (he first edition of Shakespeare's works, printed in 
1623, by his friends, Heminge and Condell, soon after his death. 
Well, I do not say that Falstaff was Fastolf; that I cannot quite 
do. Falstaff was very much a caricature or invention of the poet 
for stage purposes. But there are so many points of similarity 
justifying in some degree the use of our Fastolf as a type, that it 
may be interesting to note them, if only as a study. It will also 
afford opportunity for executing a little justice on a subordinate 
historical character that has had a little too much false gilding.^ 

' Fuller, ed. 1572, p. 253. "The stage hath been overbold, making him a 
Thrasonical puff and emblem of mock valour. True it is, Sir John Oldcastle 
did iirst bear the brunt of the one, being made the make-sport in all plays for a 
coward. It is easily known out of what purse this black penny came. The 
Papists railed on him for a heretic, and therefore he must also be a coward. I am 
glad Sir John Oldcastle is put out so ; I am soriy Sir John Fastolfe is put in. 
Nor is our comedian excusable," &c. The play of 'Sir John Oldcastle' w.as 
printed in 1600, and was written by Anthony Mundaj', Drayton, and perhaps 
others (Malone). 

' "His valour made him a terror in war ; his humanity made him a blessing in 
peace." "The streams of his treasure that fed the fountain of his munificence 
were numerous and plentiful." " Sir John Fastolf, the brave experienced soldier, 
the wise and able statesman, the steady patriot, the generous patron, the pious 



THE CHARACTER OF FASTOLF. 63 

The loss of France dwelt much in the public mind ; " so many had 
the managing' that they lost France and made our England bleed." 
So says the chorus in 'Henry V.' ; and (his strong impression was 
spoken out by Cade," and is noted in other parts of the plays. 
Of "the many managers " who had a hand in it, some, the Bishop 
of Chichester or Winchester and De la Pole,^ were put to death ; 
others, as Fastolf, dwelt in the public mind as traitors or imbeciles 
who had tarnished the fair fame of England. With this view, it 
would not surprise any one to find the name picked out for obloquy 
in an historical play. The time was not so long since these 
deeds were done that they and the personages which figured in 
them should be forgotten. Shakespeare was a reader of ' Hall's 
Chronicles,' and Hall says''': — From this battle'' " departed, with- 
out any stroke stricken. Sir John Fastolf, the same year for his 
valiantness elected into the Order of the Garter. For which cause 
the Duke of Bedford, in a just anger, took from him the image of 
St. George and his Garter ; but afterwards, by means of friends and 
apparent causes of good excuse iy him alledged, he was restored to the 
Order again, against the mind of the Lord Talbot." Noting my 
italics, it will be seen what was in the mind of the chronicler. 
The discovery of the ' Fasten Letters ' was a great boon, giving 
facts as they were generally believed by the best people of the 
time, and they seem to open up some truths about Sir John 
Fastolf. He marries the mother of Stephen Scrope, and between 
them the unlucky heir is kept from his inheritance ; Scrope is his 
ward, to be made a profit of according to the times ; the wardship 
and marriage were sold for a good round sum, "sold like a beast," 

benefactor." — William Oldys, 'Life of Sir John FastolfF,' by Gough, fol. 1793. 
Let all this be kept in mind -when I note the passages from the ' Paston Letters. ' 

^ And Cade had been a soldier in the French wars, and probably Icnew the 
feeling among his fellows. 

' He married Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer. The captain who kills 
him at sea plays on his name, tells him he is the pool whose filth and dirt troubles 
the silver spring where England drinks; but there is a 'Paston Letter,' xxvi., 
Knight's Edition, which shows the Duke in quite another, a vciy pious and very 
noble, character. 

" See edition 1809, p. 150. 

' Of Patay ; Joan of Arc was present, and Talbot was taken prisoner. 



64 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

says Scrope, who had to be taken back again, and was kept in 
penury. The wardship of Thomas Fastolf was bought of the 
King; there was much wrangUng over him. 

Fastolf is a lender of money ; the Duke of York pawns jewels 
to him ; he has lent money to Lord Rivers ; others are indebted ; 
and it appears at least probable that his great influence in this way 
stood him in good stead in the restoration of his good name, his 
rehabilitation, as we call it. He has frequent troubles, and law is 
sought; but he can influence the judges, or try to. He, prays for a 
continuance of favour from a judge before whom is a case of his, 
and hints that he will keep it in mind. Some people at Caistor 
offend him — " if they continue in their wilfulness he will be quit 
on them, by God or the Devil he will." At a dinner at Norwich, 
1454, many gentlemen present, — they throw scorn upon him as a 
boaster, and as one who takes advantage of others ; he wishes to 

know secretly who they are, and then . Henry Wyndesore, the 

servant who sought the fulfilment of a promise as to the Boar's 
Head, says of him, " It is not unknown that cruel and revengeful he 
hath ever been, without pity or mercy "; and obscurely he hints at 
other matters, about which it would perhaps not be safe for him to 
speak out. William of Worcester, a distinguished chronicler of 
the time, was secretary, factotum, and apparently also physician to 
Fastolf ; he complains bitterly how he is kept out of wage ; he had 
little or no salary, but had plenty to eat and drink, was treated like a 
menial, not as a gentleman or scholar, and was always kept up with 
hope ; his master wished him to be a priest, and to have had a 
benefice— that is to say, "another man must give it"; he has but 
five shillings yearly to help to pay for the bonnets he loses, and 
speaks of his master's " unkyndnesse and covetisse." Paston also, 
his man of business, was a waiter on the future ; he did not get his 
costs other than in expectation ; " He never had of the seid 
Sir John Fastolf fee ne reward in his lyf," 

Fastolf's servant Payn is sent from Southwark to Cade's people 
at Blackheath. Fastolf is denounced by Cade as the greatest 
traitor that was in England or France ; that it was mainly owing to 
him that the King lost his title and inheritance beyond the sea ; 
and that he had so provided in Southwark as to destroy the com- 
mons ; and that he should be requited. The servant is permitted 



SIR JOHN FASTOLF. 65 

to go to his master and persuade him to put away his soldiers and 
habiliments of war from Southwark, Fastolf did so, and went, he 
and his men, to the Tower and was safe.' Fastolf does not 
appear to have taken any part in the struggle fought unsuccess- 
fully by Cade with the City people. True he was now old ; but his 
servant Payn is, like Uriah, put in the forefront of the battle, and 
is hurt near hand to death. The unfortunate man fares no better 
on the other side ; he is expected to tell of such matters as might 
impeach his master of treason, and failing is put into the 
Marshalsea, despoiled, and threatened to be hung, drawn, and 
quartered ; and as he says, it does not seem now fifteen years 
after that he has been recompensed his bare losses. No wonder 
when Fastolf dies that there should be a general scramble for 
the immense riches he is known to have left behind him ; and it is 
not unnatural that he might be chosen as one upon whom fittingly to 
exercise some wit and satire. Whether the expression, " My old 
lad of the castle,"^ might by poetic licence be brought in as re- 
ferring only to Sir John Oldcastle, or to a man known in Southwark 
as the owner of Falstof Place and the Boar's Head, who had set his 
mind upon the building of a huge castle at Caister, I cannot say. 
Fastolf s doings at Caistor might have well given him this nickname. 
He, the Southwark man of Stoney Street, had built an enormous 
castle, each side 300 feet long, with a large and lofty tower at each 
corner, one of them 100 feet high ; a castle which had been 
besieged in the Wars of the Roses, and had been the subject of an 
immense deal of cupidity and fuss. At length the old one-third 
warrior, one-third shrewd man of the world, one-third knave, is 
almost at his last ; he is beyond fourscore years. Now in reality 
his time is come, when he must before he is "out of heart 
and without strength," prepare for his soul. He wishes " the 
leisure to dispose himself godly, and beset his lands and his goods 
to the pleasure of God and the weal of his soul, that all men may 
say he dieth a wise man and a worshipful." " He had so managed 

■• Here are, to some extent, repetitions of previous passages, but in each case, 
it seems essential to the story. 

* Shakespeare, 1st part ' Henry IV.,' Act i. sc. 2. 

^ He had, indeed, taken thought about this. A practised writer liad been 
employed to write a history of the valiant exploits that Sir John Fastolf did while 

F 



66 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

matters as to be very rich, to possess property — manors far and 
wide. The list of them almost takes away one's breath. There is 
a suspicion that he was wary and cunning, and that he had managed 
to scrape a great deal together ad misericordiam, and by pertinacity. 
This is continually shown in the Shakespeare character in small 
things. In larger things see his " Billa de debitis Regis in partibus 
Franciae, Johanni Fastolf, militi, debitis, 4,083/. i^s. y^d."'' — to the 
farthing ; this means at least some ten or twelve times in value the 
named amount. Accordingly lawsuits and scrambles occur after 
his death. The Duke of Exeter claims his place in Southwark. 
The Duke of Norfolk seizes by force of arms the great castle at 
Caister. In fact, a general infringement of the tenth commandment 
ensues. Fastolf was a merchant at Yarmouth, and complains how 
ill that answered.^ He was employed in France during the time of 
Henry V., and for this he was well rewarded. 

But the time is come. He is superstitious, childless, and anxious 
and timid as to the future ; now at last he must really care for his 
soul. After the manner of the times, he takes counsel with the 
Church ; that is, with his friend Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. 
He has made the best of this world, but can now no longer enjoy it, 
but charity he thinks will make everything straight for the next. A 
heavy duty devolves upon his friend, — affairs are in great confusion, 
and every one is pulling a different way for his own benefit. One 
ruling passion is still apparent. Fastolf is much set upon the 
foundation of his college, he knows what he is, but he wishes his 
memory to be fragrant, and he is aware what the general teaching 
is, that at the last a man may with sufficient largesse (of which he 
has plenty and which he can no longer enjoy) make everything 
square, so to speak, and be even " a saint," however he may have 
revelled in St. George's Fields or elsewhere. The bishop is moved 
to obtain the licence without any "great fine." The ruling pas- 
he was in France ; and the writing had been delivered, together witli a Chronicle 
of Jeiiisalem — some -twenty bundles of paper — "to the Secretary, William of 
Worcester, and none other" (Knight's 'Paston,' vol. i. p. 152). And yet William 
of Worcester considered his master a mean man, to be rather derided than 
honom-ed. 

' Knight's 'Paston,' vol. i. pp. 71-74. 

' Knight's 'Paston,' vol, i. p. 81. 



THE END OP SIR JOHN FASTOLF. 6"] 

sion to the last, but there was some reason here, as it was usual then 
to charge a fifth of the sum bestowed for amortizing, that is for set- 
tling in mortmain. But his lawyer nephew says they will not do 
it for less.' Knowing-, I suppose, his uncle's frailty, he seems to 
insinuate that my Lady Abergavenny (another Southwark poten- 
tate, if I am not mistaken) hath in divers abbeys in Leicestershire 
seven or eight priests singing for her perpetually, and that they 
had agreed for " money," and had given 200 or 300 marks, as they 
might accord, for a priest. And (simple souls as to perpetuity) they, 
for a surety that the prayers should be sung in the same abbeys for 
rcer, left manors of great value, — left so that the said service 
should be kept. To this effect the wily nephew wrote to his wor- 
shipful uncle. Accordingly the fearful and superstitious sinner 
near his end leaves in his will bequests far and wide ; he remem- 
bers divers matters for the '' wele of his sowle "; poor men and 
priests have bequests to pray " in perpetuite "; 4,000 marks are to 
be bestowed, for the sowle of Sir John Fastolf ; chantry priests 
in St. Olave's, priests here, there and everywhere. Great things 
were devised for the soul of Sir John Fastolf, but it ended in 
squabbles, a general snatching up of what each could get, and a 
patched-up agreement between the contending parties. Wayn- 
flete agrees that they shall take some, and he shall be free with 
the rest for his church and college; When Henry IV. came in 
1399 Fastolf must have been 22 or 23, and when the King died 
36 or 37. When Henry V. died, he was probably 45 or 46; his 
own death was in 1459, at the age of 82.^ All this coming out of the 
'\ Bore's Head " and its owner may appear tedious, but I could not 
bring myself to say less of so distinguished a character, of Shake- 
speare's it may be, but of Southwark certainly. It may be inte- 
resting to know the result of all Fastolf's care for his soul, but I 
have no better authority than the Hostess, in the first act of 
Henry V. In this case I may be allowed to mix fact with fiction a 
little. The Hostess mixes this world and the next humorously 
enough. FalstafI is dead ; — Bardolph is touched ; he would be with 

' The other way, I think ; — ^but can it be ? — " they ask for eveiy 100 marks ye 
would amortize, 500 marks." Letters, vol. i. p. 91. 
' Or 83. Grainger. 

F 2 



68 OLD SOUTinVARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

his old master, "would I were with him wheresomere hee is, 
eyther in Heaven or in Hell." " Nay, sure," says the Hostesse, 
hee 's not in Hell ; hee 's in Arthur's Bosome, if ever man went to 
Arthur's Bosome : a made a finer end, and went away and it had 
been any Christome Child." 

ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH. 
. In the picture of Hogarth's ' Southwark Fair,' of which many 
engravings are about, amidst the tumult of the fair and the booths, 
the top of the tower of OLD ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH (Map, S) 
is to be seen. The stone tower is square and embattled, and with 
a turret ; on the top, people are engaged in the sports of the fair, 
watching and assisting the mountebank in his flight down the rope 
from the tower to the ground.'' A goodly clock is shown, the time 
near half-past eleven. This sketch was probably taken not long 
before the old church was pulled down and the new one built.^ 
The old church was no doubt of great antiquity ; the same; indeed, 
allowing for repairs and renovations, as that in which Roman 
Catholic services had, up to the time of our map, always been 
performed. 

In all the old maps I have seen, the church appears with a square 
tower, and practically on the same site as the present one. It was 
no doubt first founded when the parish first took shape, but there 
is no evidence as to the exact time. The steeple and gallery were 
repaired, new pewed, and beautified in 1629; the fact, recorded 
on glass, was in one of the windows remaining in 1708. Another 
inscription, on the key-piece of the west inner door-case, recorded 
another important repair, in 1682 ;" and as time was evidently 
telling upon the old fabric, the steeple was again repaired in 1705." 

■' This man was Robert CacUnan, or, in a. magazine of the time, Thomas 
Kidman, wlio brolce his neclc in a more daring fliglit from the spire of St. Maiy's, 
Shrewsbury, in 1740. This sensational kind of flight from a church tower was 
not new or uncommon ; an instance at St. Paul's, in 1547, is graphically noted in 
the Grey Friars' Chromck. 

' The first stone laid, St. George's Day, 1734. 

■* On one of these occasions, probably 1629, the south ilc was enlarged half the 
length, on the ground of the churchyard. 

■' We might have had a more complete record of the old church, but unfortu- 
nately, in 1776, the parish papers and docyments were sold in a lump, at the rate 



THE ANCIENT ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH. 69 

The oldest record I know of concerning the church is from the 
'Annals of Bermondsey.' * "In the year of our Lord 1122, 
Thomas de Ardern and Thomas his son gave to the monks of 
Bermondsey the church of St. George in Southwerk, which gift 
was confirmed by the King, Henry I. It had, therefore, existed 
some time before that. In pulling down the tower in 1733 was dis- 
covered a part of the material of which it had been built, a square 
stone, with an inscription;' which was engraved and explained 
in the ' Archaeologia,' Vol. II. p, 189, and in other journals. It 
appears to have been a quasi-Roman inscription of the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries, and seems to imply, says one, that an 
Alderman of London laid the first stone ; another hints that it was 
probably an old Roman stone with an inscription, used in building 
the first church. There were in fact many Roman villas up and 
down the High Street, near to the site of St. George's Church. 
Whatever the meaning of the inscription may be, it is Englished 
thus in the ' Archaeologia ': — " R. Codam raised this ; be not thou 
he that will suffer it to be defaced at any feast of Mannus," which 
looks like an attempt to explain the unexplainable.' In 1733 this 
stone was in the hands of the clerk of St. Thomas's ; afterwards 
it was with the Rev. Jno. Lewis, of Margate, and so mutilated that 
the letters could be with difficulty made out. Suffice it to say, it 
appears to be good evidence of the great antiquity of our church, 
and was probably taken from the remains of a Roman villa near 
at hand. An old and somewhat beautiful font belonging to the 
church is figured, and an account of it given in the Gentleman's 
Magazine, April 1840. It appears that it was removed in 1736, 
and was afterwards used in the Workhouse in beating oakum ; 
but, being thrown aside, was preserved by an old parishioner. It 
was probably of the time of Henry VIII., was octagonal, with a 
panel in each face, enclosing a small flower. 

of i4</. the lb., the purchaser to cart them away; happily, Hatton, 'New View 
of London, ' and the continuator of Stow had already preserved some of the now 
lost records. 

' 'Annales de Bermundeseia.' Rolls edit. 

' MS. Additional, 6402, f. 43. B. M. 

' None of my learned friends can make anything of it, other than to recognize 
a word here and there. 



'JO OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

The church was an old building, the pillars, windows, and arches 
of modern Gothic ; pleasant enough, but as Hatton says, " pity the 
floor is so very uneven when a small charge would make it level." 
At the west end an organ gallery, old and out of repair ; the altar- 
piece Tuscan ; the commandments in gold on black ; the Lord's 
Prayer and Creed with four painted cherubim ; the Queen's arms in 
the window ; over the communion table words of gold letters in 
blue ; about thf' middle of north side a handsome window, with the 
arms of twenty-one City companies who had been good bene- 
factors to the amount of i66/. lis. in the repairs of 1629. There 
was a great deal of colour in the windows. One was ornamented 
with the arms of one Mr. Stone, at whose charge it was glazed ; 
another with the arms of John Wyndel, a good benefactor. 
Adjoining this window were the arms of the Worshipful Company 
of Fishmongers, very artfully carved in wood ; and under that a 
very fair large pew with two long seats, one for the men, one for 
the women, almsfolk of their hospital, St. Peter's at Newington, 
i.e., the Fishmongers' Almshouses. Other windows had coats of 
arms, one with only the words " Sed Sanguine," others to the 
memory of Shaw, Bennet, and Lenthall. It had, as Stow's con- 
tinuator says, a great deal of grace and beauty, but, as Hatton says 
about the same time, pity the floor was so uneven. The fact is the 
old church was nearly worn out, and the time had come for the 
new one, one of the fifty Queen Anne's churches. It is a great 
pity that the old stained glass, made no doubt in the palmy time of 
art, then much practised in Southwark, was not preserved and 
placed in the new church. The dimensions of the old church were 
69 feet by 60 ; the height 35 feet ; the steeple, a tower, and turret, 
98 feet ; and there were eight bells.*" 

The church was a noted one, and had its gild of brethren and 
sisters of Our Lady and St. George the Martyr. The character of 
this gild and its rules have not come down to us, but in a brief ' of 
the time of Henry VIII. and Wolsey, certain brethren of the church 



" The new or present church is no feel by 52, more than a third larger than 
the former. 

' These documents are very interesting, and were common, at least from 1485 to 
1520. — Notes and Queries. 



THE GILD OF OUR LADY AND ST. GEORGE. 7I 

are authorized to beg on behalf of the " service of Almighty God 
in St. George's, and for any book, bell, or light, or ornament, or 
for reparation of the church." Mr. HalliwelP has given in the 
book cited a fac-simile of a brief of " the. bretherne and systers of 
the Church of Our Lady and Seynt George the Martyr in Sowth- 
werke," which he considers likely to have been printed from the 
press of Wynkyn de Worde. Among the rare broadsides in the 
possession of the Society of Antiquaries is a St George's brief, not 
perfect. It is in black letter, the date about 15 18. In the corner 
is a rude picture of St. George and the Dragon. The brief runs 
thus ' : — " Unto all manner and singular Christian people beholding 
or hearing these present letters shall come greeting. Our Holy 
Fathers, xij Cardinals of Rome, chosen by the mercy of Almighty 
God, and by the authority of the Apostles Peter and Paul, to all 
and singular Christian People of either kind, truly penitent and 
confessed, and devoutly give to the Church of our Lady and Sayni 
George the Martyr in Sowthwerke protector 6^ defender of this realme of 
Englande any thynge or helpe with any parte of theyr goodes to the 
Reparacios or niaynteynynge the servyce of almighty God done in the same 
place as in gyuyng any hoke or helle or lyght or any other churchly 
ornametes they shaW have of eche of us Cardinalles syngulerfy aforesayd 
a C dayes of pardon. Also there isfoHded in the same parysshe church 
aforesayd Hi chantre preests ppetually to pray in the sayd Churche for the 
bretherne and systers of the same fraternite &= for the souks of theym 
that be departed and for all chrsten soules. And also iiii tymes by the 
yere Placebo &■= Dirige with xiiii preests &= clerkes with Hi solemnne 
masses one of our Lady another of saynt George with a mass of 
Requiem. Moreover our holy fathers Cardinalles of Rome aforesayd 
have graunted the pardons foloweth to all theym that be bretherne and 
systers of the same fraternite at every of these days folowyng that is to 
say the first Sonday after the fees t of Saynt fohn baptyst on the whiche 
the same church was halowed xij C dayes of pardon. Also the feest of 
saynt Michaell y^ archangell xij C dayes of pardon. Also the seconde 
sonday in Lent xij C dayes of pdon. Also good frydaye the which daye 

^ ' Catalogue of Broadsides, ' &c. , p. 221. 

' From Catalogue by R. Lemon, F. .S.A., 1866, and from that of Mr. Halliwell, 
so that a complete copy is here presented. The spelling in italic type is faithfully 
copied from the broadside. 



72 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Christe suffered his passion xij C dayes of pardon. Also tewysdaye in the 
Whytson weke xij C dayes of pardon. And also at every feest of our 
Lord Christ syngulerly by hymselfe from the first evensong to the seconde 
evensong inclusively xij C dayes of pdon. Also my lord Cardinally 
Chauncellor of Englande, hath given a C dayes of fdon. The swne of 
the pardon cometh to in the y ere xii mcccc &> xl ^ dayes of pardon. 

" The sunime of the masses that is sayd &" song within the same parysshe 
churche of saynt George is a M andXLIlIl. God save the Kynge." 

There were, of course, very many such briefs. 15 ii,* Gild of 
St. George, Southwark. " Protection for one year to the deputies 
of the Gild of the Virgin Mary and St. George, in the Church of 
St. George, in Southwark, sent to various parts of the country to 
solicit and collect alms." Another, 15 13, examined by Doctour 
Collet, Dean of Poulles.' It may be noted that Gower, the poet, 
1408, remembers this with the other Southwark churches, leaving 
in his will 13^. 4^. for ornaments and lights, and 6s. &d. to the 
resident priest or rector to have prayers said for him. Less dis- 
tinguished people, many of them, no doubt did the same. People 
devoted to the church, in confederation of brotherhood and sister- 
hood, must no doubt have been a great help in keeping off the 
evil day which, however, at length overwhelmed both church and 
gild. It is worth the trouble of comparing in imagination that 
St. George's and its services and this present one. Protestant 
and lover of religious freedom as I am, I cannot but own that 
our cold occasional affairs are not in every sense better than the 
somewhat attractive and almost perpetual life and bustle in the old 
church. For myself, I would rather be without both than have 
either, and I trust I am not the less a Christian for that. There 
can be a warm and heartfelt service without gorgeous ceremony, 
posturing, and superstition. The gild of St. George's, South- 
wark, had long been noted, and had gifts and offerings accordingly; 
for example — " To the fraternitee of Saint George, in Southwerke, 

■• Wolsey. 

' 124,040 days ; something worth obtaining by those who are acutely sensitive 
to pain, but of not much moment if the trouble is to have no end. 
" Rolls Publications, 1511 ; Greenwich, 3rd July, 3 Heniy VIIL 
' Knight's Colet, 1724. 



THE GILD AND ITS DUTIES. 73 

Ss.,^ 1509, iSio, iSii, 1512. — King's "offering's to St. George's Gild, 
Southwark, i^s. ^d. each time. Many others are noted in following 
years of gifts on St. George's Day, e.g., to St. George's Gild, 
Southwark, 1 3^. 4c?. ; to the fraternity of St. George's Gild, 1 3^. 4^. ; 
IS 19, my Lord's^ offering to St. George, in Southwark, 4^/. ; the 
same as at the Savoy. St. George's Day, even after the destruc- 
tion of the gilds under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., was a great 
festival. In 1559 the crafts of London, in coats of velvet and chains, 
with guns, pikes, and flags, muster before the Lord Mayor in the 
Duke of Suffolk's park, opposite St. George's, when, after bread and 
drink, they move to St. George's Fields ; and, after lO of the doke, 
therein before the Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich, and to games.'' 
We are not, however, without a more complete clue as to the inner 
meaning of a Gild of St. George. There was one at Lynn, the 
records of which are preserved ; ^ this was, however, so early as 
1 376. Probably our St. George's Gild, noted as it had now become, 
\yas of as early foundation. The rules of this gild of St. George 
at Linn were : — A priest to serve at the altar of St. George ; to 
find candles and torches for service and burials ; services for the 
dead and offerings ; masses for souls ; help to poor bretheren and 
sisteren; four meetings every year under penalty ; the gild to go to 
church, from their gild house, in hood of livery ; every feast to be 
begun with prayer, the gild light burning the while, and always 
without noise and jangling ; members admitted at general morun- 
speche (general mornspeech, or meeting) ; the affairs of the gild 
not to be disclosed. From the few words of the brief, this may 
be taken as an analogous gild to our own. It would be pleasant 
to me could I but see a service of bretheren and sisteren in livery 
on St. George's Day in our old church. The gild house was 
usually close to the church ; it was so in St. Olave's, which was 
known as Jesus House. In 1519" the ' Gild Alle ' in Southwark ' '* 
is mentioned ; but whether pertaining to this gild, which was then 

' 1502. Elysabeth of York, Queen of Henry VII. (Nicolas). 

» Henry VIII. 

' My Lord Cardinall Wolsey, Rolls Publications. 

° Machyn's 'Diary,' 1559. 

' 'English Gilds,' Toulmin Smith, p. 74. 

■* Rolls Publications, 1519, vol. iii. part i, page 127. 



74 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

distinguished enough to receive offerings yearly from King and 
Cardinal, cannot be told. 

A scene which took place here tells, alas ! quite another, and a 
dreadful story. On the 25th May, i SS7, Stephen Gratwick is before 
Dr. White, Bishop of Winchester, at eight in the morning, in St. 
George's Church ; he is condemned, sent to the Marshalsea, and 
with two others burnt to death in St. George's Fields ; the same 
day, Richard Woodman from the Marshalsea, appears before 
certain bishops and priests sitting in St. George's Church ; he also 
is afterwards condemned. This is in the Marian period, and was 
part of the cruel doings of that time, which happily was short. 

Another scene. Now the victims are Romanists and the Queen 
a Protestant.^ John Rigby is in the White Lyon Prison, a few 
doors north of the church ; he had conformed, but now avows 
himself ; he appears at the sessions, St. Margaret's Hill, and will 
not go to church. He is condemned to be hanged and quartered 
at St. Thomas a Watering. The hurdle awaits him in the yard, 
and, as he goes along, the minister of St. George's offers his aid ; 
the condemned man thanks him, but will not. Friends meet him 
on the way, and before long his head and quarters are set up in 
and about the public ways of Southwark. Some others like him 
meet with the same fate in the same reign. It is said that the St. 
George's bell, within our century, was nightly rung :' a tradition of 
the curfew, for fires to be. put out, cattle to be locked up, apprentices 
to go home, and the like. It rang when prisoners were placed on 
the hurdle for execution in 1803, as it probably did before. Up to 
within our own day the neighbourhood of St. George's Church 

" Without attempting in any way to apologize for cruelty, we cannot but blame 
the bull of Pius V. deposing Elizabeth, for much of the cruelty practised toward 
Catholics in this reign, and perhaps we owe to this bull more or less, the fact that 
ours is a Protestant country. The Act of Elizabeth 13, ch. 2, was the answer 
forbidding any such publication, and making that and other Romish practices 
treason, and for the time, at least, it forbade peace with Rome. And was not, 
then, this severity natural ? There was published in 1588, in English, for circu- 
lation, ' A Declaration of the Sentence and Deposition of Elizabeth, the Vsurper 
and pretended Quene of Englande,' eighty-one lines. Such a document was sure 
to recoil upon its advocates. A copy of this rare paper was sold in 1862, in 
London, for 31/. 

^ Syer Cuming, Archaolog. Journal, April, 1848. 



PUTTING TO DEATH. 75 

was fruitful in executions. In the older times some chief prisons 
were near; there was always a tendency to draft many of the 
chief criminals of the country into Southwark. People were 
executed within the prisons, and buried at St. George's ; the way 
to one place of execution was by the church. In the records which 
are left of St. George's, entries of this dreadful sort occur : — 

1631. "Mary Bishop, Jane Gold, Joane Dobridge, executed, 
out of the White Lyon." 

1610. "Michael Banks, out of the King's Bench, executed; 
did revive again, was in the old vestry three hours, and was 
then carried back and executed again." It was not uncommon, 
apparently, to have to wait for a better rope — to be hanged 
again. 

1630. " Richard Lade, A.M., executed ; hong." 
1603. Many this year "hong" — two or three a day some- 
times, from the White Lyon and the Bench Prisons. 
The habit of the time was violence, but the executions only 
brutalized ; thrice in eight weeks, in this same century, the 
minister of St. George's preaches from the text, " Do violence to 
no man "; it must have been always before him. 

A foreigner,' about 1580, tells how executions were managed. 
" For hanging," he says, " the English have no regular execu- 
tioner : a butcher or any other one is called to perform it. The 
criminal seated in a cart, one end of...rope round his neck, the 
other fastened to the gallows ; the cart moves on, and the con- 
demned wretch is left hanging. Friends and acquaintances pull 
at his legs, that he may be strangled the sooner." 

Our church, like others in those irregular and half lawless times, 
was a sanctuary for wretches fleeing for their lives ; that is, from 
summary revenge or summary justice, lynch or otherwise. One 
such case at least is known,' a man had killed his benefactress a 
widow sleeping in her bed, and had fled with such jewels and 
other stuff of hers as he might carry, but was so hotly pursued, that 
for fear he took to the Church of St. George in Southwark, and had 
allowed privilege of sanctuary there. Afterwards, in his way out 

' ' England as seen l)y Foreigners,' W. B. Rye, p. 89. 
« Stow, Thorns' ed., p. 157. 



76 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

of the land — which mercy the privilege allowed him — he was set 
upon by the friends and neighbours of the murdered widow, and 
killed in the street. A touching picture of a hunted wretch, who 
had just reached sanctuary, and was clinging to the altar, followed 
closely by a howling crowd, all which I see now, was exhibited 
at the Royal Academy last year. 

Another scene at St. George's. Certain crimes, deserving 
somewhat less than execution or pillory, were often punished 
with penance, which in some cases meant standing bareheaded 
and barelegged, in a white sheet, openly before the people ; some- 
times in the market-place, sometimes in the church, or in the 
church-porch from bell-ringing to divine service, or upon a stool 
in the middle aisle before the congregation until service was over. 
1549. Only as an instance, a conjuror during preaching, was 
standing with the scripture, that is the written offence on his 
breast." Sometimes this was done privately, for a less offence or 
to spare the individual. I have note of one at St. Saviour's, 1637, 
presented by the churchwardens of his parish for loose con- 
duct ; of another at St. Thomas's, 1732, for scandal;' of another 
at St. George's, 1736, when "an eminent attorney did private 
penance for slandering a woman in the Mint." From what I 
know of the Mint, even in these days, the eminent attorney must 
have spoken very strong words indeed to have deserved penance 
for a lady of the Mint. But a few years before, the Mint had been 
an Alsatia, or acknowledged and privileged resort for the vilest 
people, to be cured only by a special Act of Parliament, 9 Geo. I. 
It may be that the place was struggling into virtue, and the 
attorney was hindering the process. More than a hundred years 
afterwards the place was known to me, its medical officer, as a 
wholesale resort of doubtful people. 

In 1 364, any one forswearing himself was to stand on a high 
stool in full busting, and the cause made known.' In case of 
incest or incontinency, the penitent did open and public penance in 
the parish church or market-place ; Bishop Grindal ordering the 
offender " to be set over against the pulpit during the sermon or 

' 'Grey Friars' Chronicle,' p. 63. 

' The official document, p. m., signed by the minister and parish officials. 

* Riley ' Mem. Lond.' 



VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. T] 

homily, in a sheet, and on a board, a foot and half at least above 
the church floor .^ In visitation articles, 1637, the churchwardens 
(Canterbury) were to provide a sheet and white wand for this 
purpose. 

It was a way they had, in their punishments openly to disgrace 
people, barring the way back to repentance and respect among those 
who had " been in trouble " ; and so the people were brutalized, 
and the exhibition of mutilated remains of the condemned, or of 
people burnt to death, in the highways, was found to produce 
only a passing sensation. I copy from this day's Times'^- — human 
nature under adequate neglect appears to be always the same — 
" Two men (Bulgarians) are hanged ; they stand on chairs while 
the rope is being adjusted, and ten minutes later the men are 
there hanging ; a small crowd seems moved with a vague curiosity ; 
but all the business of the bazaar is being carried on within twenty 
yards as regularly and quietly as if nothing unusual had 
happened." 

But I must go back to St. George's. Our church, like all others, 
was itself very impartial as to the creed or practice of the 
preachers admitted to its pulpit. The fabric alone was impas- 
sive ; to-day the people are Papists, to-morrow Puritan, Church, 
Presbyterian, Independent, or Catholic, each and all, adequately 
persuaded or incited, willing to coerce or persecute the other. 

A church so distinguished as specially to figure in the g'ift-books 
of the King and next highest in the land, once a year at least 
on the festival days of the saint, is likely to have had men of note 
in its pulpit, and people not less distinguished to listen. Out of 
the flock of abbots and priors living close at hand, surely one 
now and then appeared. As the church belonged to the Abbey 
of Bermondsey, its abbot or a selected monk must have on 
occasion preached to the people here. One very much dis- 
tinguished there was. Bishop Bonner, who came here, but it was 
to be buried at night in silent and disgraceful manner, but whether 
he and his fellow Gardiner ever appeared in our pulpit, I know 
not; as they preached in neighbouring churches, notably St. 
Saviour's, no doubt they did so here. It is something to be able 

'3 N^otes and Queries, 1875, p. 278. 
* August 7th, 1877, p. 8, 



78 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

to close the eyes and indulge in a living- picture of the past ; our 
little church, with its rich stained glass windows, with incense, 
music, and gorgeous ceremonial ; the gathering of the quaintly 
dressed brethren and sisteren of the gild on St. George's Day ; or 
perchance a differential believer or heretic, as was the custom, 
sitting in conspicuous place, to be preached at, before being 
delivered over to the secular arm, to be judicially murdered for 
a matter of conscientious opinion. As hearers, there were the 
inmates of the royal and ducal mansion opposite the church, or 
unfortunate people of distinction, in debt, and in the rules within 
which the church was ; — the chief officers of the Bench — Lenthall, 
and others — are known to have worshipped at St. George's 
Church. 

From the time that Arderne and his son gave St. George's to 
the Priory of Bermondsey until the final winding up, the appoint- 
ment of the rector was with the Priory,^ unless it happened that 
there was trouble with France or with the Pope ; then the alien, 
or French Priory, fell, for the time, into the hands of the King, and 
the appointment with it." So Thomas Profete, in 1369-70, was 
appointed by the King rector of St. George's. 

It may be imagined what different doctrines were preached here 
in the disturbed times ; — in the early time of Henry VIII., before the 
quarrel with Rome ; — in the later, when ministers were drawn 
through Southwark to St. Thomas a Watering, and there executed 
for the "supremacy";' time Edward VI., when, 1547 "all the 
images are pulled down," and when in 1533, in Mary's time, 
" the altars are set up again," — and so on. Under Elizabeth, one 
rector with the congenial name of Lattymer appears in St. George's 
pulpit. In 1625, the preacher here dies of the plague — dies on 
duty. More than 3S,000 died of the plague this year in London, 



° In this period appears as rector, Carmelianus, poet laureate. Caxton 
printed six epistoloe, which Carmelianus had put into elegant Latin. A copy of one 
precious fragment of his I saw at the Caxton Exiiibition, No. 94, Catalogue. 

" \\hcn first founded Fermondsey Priory was an offset and dependent of the 
French I'liory, and the appointment of prior at least, was with the foreigner ; hence 
it was known as alien. 

' Stow's 'Annals,' 1533. The King, and not the Pope, supreme head of the 
C'liurch. 



THE CLERGY IN THE TIME OF THE PLAGUE. 79 

and among them, in the neighbouring parish of St. Saviour's, 
Fletcher, the great dramatist. 1665, another St. George's preacher 
dies of the plague ; — from 70,000 to 100,000 people die of the disease 
this year. No fate more noble than to die on duty in the midst of 
such a work. In another page^ is narrated, how with honourable 
exceptions, some hospital doctors fled. Some of the clergy also 
were terror-stricken ; the regular clergy, in some instances, got their 
places supplied." Archbishop Neile writes to Laud, " he had 
hoped to have brought his report of his province, but the lingering 
of the infection about Winchester House makes him afraid."^ 
1665. "Most of the clergy have fled, and the ejected ministers 
volunteer and supply the pulpits " ; notably in South wark, Janeway, 
Vincent, Chester, Turner, Grimes, and Franklin.^ Now came out 
some broadsheets, jeering, well deserved, — " 



Again,- 



' A PULPIT to be let. Woe to the idle 
Shepherd that leaveth his flock. " 



" No morning mattins now, nor evening song. 
Alas ! the Parson cannot stay so long." 



Again, of both laity and clergy, — 

"The Plague will follow sin, be where it will ; 
Without repentance it a man can kill." 

And many another caricature lashing the evils of the day. ■ 

Another kind of scene. Petition of Wm. Freake, curate of St. 
George's, a prisoner in the Bench, to Laud. The under-bailiff of 
Southwark had arrested him as he was coming out of church on 
Sunday, in the very act, as he says, of going to visit the sick, and 
pray with them. The story looks almost too good ; but it was 
not uncommon to take such an opportunity to get at shifty people ; 
besides, now and then, people would take the law in their own 
hands, and disregard the sanctuary. In 1478, the servant of John 

Vide ' St. Thomas's Hospital. 

^ ' Archteologia, ' xxxvii. 

' 'Rolls Dom.,' 1636-7, p. 410. 

" Neal, ' Puritans,' vol. ii., p. 652, ed. 1754. 

2 Lemon, Catalogue Antiquarian Soc, pp. 131, 132. 



8o OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Paston, well known in South wark, writes to please his master with 
the intelligence that he had served a subpoena for him on a Trinity 
Sunday during service, and before the people.* In 1444, a 
sheriff's officer, on behalf of some high-handed people, had 
arrested a man in the church during mass. It seems worse as to 
St. George's, because, until the abolition of the rules or privileged 
place, within which it was situate, the church was so to speak 
peculiarly a debtor's church. 

But "worse remains behind." In 1641, Mason, curate here, 
permits a Brownist^ to preach for him in St. George's pulpit. In 
the Guildhall Library is a copy of " The Cobler's eiid (or his lasf) 
Sermon, preached in St. George's Church Southwark, by a 
Cobler, last Sabbath Day 12 Dec. 1641." His text was, "The 
fire of hell is ordained from the beginning ; yea, even for the king 
is it prepared." Other discourses after the same kind were 
given for about three weeks. Those who heard the papistical 
Book of Common Prayer, those who would admit bishops 
and priests, were damned; and vlie preacher added to the 
emphasis by every now and then ("ever and anon ") crying out 
" Fire ! fire ! fire ! " The end was a tumult over the pew -backs." So 
the churchwardens, especially Sir John " Lentle,'" justice of the 
peace, commanded that the preacher should be apprehended, " and 
he is now to answer at the Common Council." Taylor, the Water 
Poet,* who was rather warm in these matters, and not too nice 
in his phrases, speaks of the notorious predicant Cobler^ whose 
body was buried in the highway," his funeral sermon being 

■' ' Paston Letters. ' 

5 Brownists, specially church reformers, named after their leader ; but in this 
case apparently, a ranter and firebrand. 

" The modern word is "row." I have, in my own time, before the time of 
the present vestries, witnessed similar disgraceful scenes in St. George's Church. 

' Lenthall. We may learn from the constant variation in' the spelling of 
names, in what way Avords were pronounced by different people in those 
times ; and this may serve to show phonetic people how they may have frequently 
to alter their spelling, according as fashion, caprice, or ignorance may take to 
pronouncing words. 

8 'The Brownist's Conventicle,' 1641. 

» yl props, from the parish register, " 8 May, 1623, Thomas Apsley, a Browning 
or Anabaptist, being excommunicated, was buried by soiire of his own sect in St, 
George's Field." 



RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS IN SOUTHWARK. 8 1 

preached by one of his sect in a brewer's cart. He speaks of 
" hubbubs and strange tumults in the churches, violent hands laid 
on the minister ; his master of arts hood rent from his neck ; his 
surplice torn to flitters on his back ; and this while the psalm was 
singing, — the communion table was chopped in pieces and burnt in 
the churchyard." I expect this is a little exaggerated ; the truth 
is below.^ Sir John Lenthall, the Marshall, who figured in his 
own church St. George's, visits a "nest" of the same sort of 
people at Deadman's Place, and sends several of them to the 
Clink ; so that Sir John's " blood is up." Southwark, as a very nest 
of sectaries, is in a very warm condition just now. The prentices 
took to assaulting and troubling, even to pulling down, some of these 
troublesome Brownist conventicles. The rioters who pulled down 
the rails in church, paid for their zealous freak ; they were committed 
for six months to the Bench, to stand on a high stool openly on 
market day for two hours, in Cheapside and in Southwark, to pay 
20/., and find sureties. The evil had not been, however, all on this 
side. The member for Southwark, Mr. White, a good lawyer, 
one of the best members our. borough ever had, was appointed 
chairman of a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into 
scandalous immoralities of clergy ; and very soon, partly, no doubt, 
from very warm zeal, and perhaps antipathies, some 2,000 petitions 
were brought before the Committee.^ But not to wander too far 
away from my parish church, I will now speak of, perhaps, the 
best man that had ever occupied its pulpit, Henry Jessey, a most 
learned and conscientious divine, humble, pious, and a good 
preacher. He had been at St. John's College, Cambridge, and 
had become proficient in the languages and learning needful, for 
the elucidation of the Bible, " notably Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, 
and the writings of the Rabbins." He studied physic, but I am 
not aware that he ever practised it. Coming into actual life, his 
nonconforming opinions kept pretty continuously in his way. He 
was ejected from one living for not using the ceremonies, and for 

' It was the fact that the rails were torn down, and there was a riot at the 
communion at St. Olave's and at St. Saviour's. ' Lords' Journals, 1641.' The 
parson at St. Olave's could not be got at by the remonstrants, so friendly church- 
wardens took the rails down and sold them, and got into trouble for so doing. 

" Neal, 'Puritans,' ed. 1754, vol. ii. p. 18. 

G 



82 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

presuming to take down a crucifix ; this was in Laud's time. In 
London his congregation at Queenhithe, 1637-8, was seized and 
dispersed by the bishop's officers. In 1641, Mr. Jessey and five of 
his congregation, not of St. George's, were committed to the 
Compter. While at St. George's, where, Wilson^ says, he seems 
to have been rector, he divided his labours, preaching in the 
morning at the church, afternoons among " his own people," ^ once 
a week at Eley House, and in the Savoy to wounded soldiers. He 
was engaged upon a new edition of the Bible, when the restoration 
of Charles II. stopped the work. The archbishop of the time is 
said to have altered parts of this projected work, so as to make it 
speak the language of prelacy. In 1660 he was ejected from 
St. George's, and silenced. A very lovable man he must have 
been; he kept unmarried that he might have more free scope 
for good work ; some thirty families were more or less dependent 
on him. It appears that his congregation was too numerous, and 
was accordingly divided, one kept with himself, one went with 
the well-known Praise-God Barebones, preacher, leatherseller, 
and parliament man, afterwards very busy among the sectaries of 
our fermenting borough. Jessey' spent much of his later time in 
prison on account of his nonconformity ; his faith and natural good- 

' ' History of Dissenting Churches, Southwark, ' vol. i. 

' Where they met is not certainly known ; it is not likely, having this other 
duty, that Jessey was then rector of St. George's ; he was probably lecturer or 
curate ; as lecturer it was perfectly consistent that he should have another con- 
gi-egation elsewhere. In Manning and Bray's List, ' Surrey, ' vol. iii. p. 654, 
William Hobson appears, 1639 to 1688. During these yeara were gi-eat troubles 
and changes, and Hobson was, no doubt, deprived. A deprivation is recorded ; 
somebody is "sequestred," but the name is not given. In the parish books 
during this interval appear marriages by Robert Warcup and Samuel Hylands ; 
lay maiTiages, these two being members for Southwark in Oliver's parliament. 
In 1654 Thomas Lee and Thomas Vincent officiated. In 1656 Christopher 
Searle. I have not as yet seen Jessey's name. Thomas Vincent was or had been 
chaplain to the Earl of Leicester, was dispossessed of his City living for noncon- 
formity in 1662. He left his chapel 1665, telling his colleague that he would 
devote himself chiefly to the visitation of those sick of the plague, which 
dangerous service he performed, and suffered nothing. He was much loved and 
followed ; indeed, it became a common inquiiy, "Where will Mr. Vincent preach 
next Sunday ? " 

' Most of this is from Wilson's ' Histoiy of Dissenting Churches,' vol. i. p. 45, 
and from 'Baptist Histories,' Crosby, Cramp, &c. 



HENRY JESSEY OF ST. GEORGE'S. 83 

ness,' however, served him in good stead, and he does not appear 
to have been unhappy. He died in prison, or of some distemper 
soon after imprisonment, in 1663. A busy man, too busy to be 
needlessly interrupted, Jessey inscribed over his study door this 
kindly warning to troublesome friends : — 

" Whatever friend comes hither, 
Despatch in brief or go, 
Or, help me, busied too." 

White, our member, was chairman of a committee appointed to 
search for incompetent and negligent ministers. Carlyle '' says of 
this proceeding, " The Lord Protector takes up the work in all 
simplicity and integrity, intent upon the real heart and practical 
outcome of it ; — that is, thirty-eight men are chosen, the acknow- 
ledged flower of English Puritanism, to be known as the supreme 
commission, but better known as ' Triers,' for the trial of public 
preachers." Jessey was a Trier. " Their duty was to inquire into 
scandalous, ignorant, insufficient, and other unfit cases, judging and 
sifting till gradually all is sifted clean, and can be kept clean."^ 

In such times as these it was but natural to have irregularities 
in church discipline at St. George's. In 1603 the bishop admonishes 
Rowland Allen, the curate ; he had married people not of the 
parish, and had baptized the children of light and unknown women. 
He had actually endeavoured to bring the sinner into the sanctuary ! 
Allen is henceforth to marry only such, or at least one of them, as 
are dwellers ; and to baptize no child of an unmarried woman unless 
she would abide and do open penance for the sin." He is also to 
make note of their names. The vestry obliged the curate to sign 
a profession that he would obey the bishop's order .^ 

In 1650 appear practices much akin to the well-known Mint or 
Fleet marriages. " Complaints are made of disorderly marrying 
within this parish, either the man having another wife living, or the 

* It must, however, be admitted that there is a rather intense glow of satis- 
faction at the miseries, of those adverse to his own people. Granger. 

' Cromwell, 'Letters,' &c., vol. iii. p. 323. 

8 Ibid., pp. 323-4. 

' 1665, 1684. A woman did penance in the church for a Register. 

' Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 638, citing certain parish books which are, I 
believe, mislaid or destroyed. 

G 2 



84 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

woman another husband ; marrying in dwellings, and at other places 

out of the church It is therefore in Vestry this day agreed that 

there be no marriages in the parish hereafter but such as are first 
published and in all other points performed according to the 
Directory." ' I have already noted the names of the members for 
Southwark certifying to marriages at St. George's about this time. 
The parish records yet remaining throw some light upon this. 
Many who desired to be married other than among their familiars, 
took lodgings in St. George's and elsewhere so as to comply with 
the law. Pertinent to this is an entry in 1654, — Frauncis Hyde, of 
Pangbourne, Esq., and Ann Carew of the same parish, " lodgers." 
Something interesting lies behind this, but I have not been able to 

get at it yet. In 1653, January 23, George , Ann , 

the Christian names only. This I believe refers to a distinguished 
man in England, who ought no doubt to have been married before, 
George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and Ann Clarges, now his wife. 
The writing of these registers is uniform, and is no doubt copied 
in from a rough book, and as it was not thought discreet, 
considering the circumstances, to give the illustrious name, the 
Christian names only are given in this case. The absence of the 
names justifies the belief as to the facts connected with George 
Monk when off duty. Another Monke catches the eye, but I am 
not aware of any other connexion between the last entry and this, 
— 1653, May I, John Monke and Isabell Blunt. St. George's was 
not unknown to the Puritan soldiers ; e.g., an old soldier of the 

Protector's regiment to ; one of Colonel Pride's soldiers to 

; and, as seen in Monk's case, the official register did not 

always show the names, and apparently oftener still not the real 
names. It looks as if a little pressure was being put on by the 
Puritan preachers against free living, and indeed it is so stated in 
accounts of the life of " Honest George." It is said he married in 
1649, and only declared it by this entry at St. George's in 1653. 
Be this how it may, the quotation from Manning is fairly illustrated ; 



^ /(/., citing parish books. Ordinance, 1644, that the Booli of Common Prayer 
shall be no longer used, but the ' Directoiy of Public Worship. ' The Act was 
passed in 1653 (Burns's 'Parish Registers,' pp. 25, 26). In 1645 is this entry in 
the parish books of St. George's — "This month the Directions went forth," 



MINT MARRIAGES. BURIALS. 85 

as it is also by other records, which, although of after date, indicate 
the previous practice of the place. 

In the register of Mint marriages later on, 1734, &c., now at 
Somerset House, I find couples married, — at Mr. Blanche's ; at Mr. 
Johnson's, at y' Compasses ; at the Ram and Harrow, Mint Street ; 
at Mrs. Emerson's, the Raven and Botde, in Lombard Street ; at Mr. 
Bubb's, the Coach and Horses, attended ly the overseers of the parish ; 
so that these Mint marriages were recognized by the officials. 
Again, at a woman's lodging. Bell's Rents, corner of Cheapside in 
the Mint ; at a cook's shop in Mint Street, over against Mr. Evers- 
field's, a tallow-chandler ; at Mr. Silver's, a brandy shop by the 
Harrow Dunghill ; at the Tumbledown Dick, Mr. Halifaxe's, in the 
Mint; and last, a Genoese mariner and a widow. Christenings 
were done in like manner — at the father's lodging, South Sea 
Court, Mint ; at y° sign of the Labour in Vain, in the Borough ; 
and one at the King's Bench, where, as the clergyman ruefully 
says, there was " no payment for anything." 

There were some quaint monuments in the old church, in the 
same style, but not so remarkable, as those in St. Saviour's ; one 
to the memory of the wife of Sir George Reynell, I may note, 
commonplace as it is : — 

" Etheldred Reynel. 1618. 
Modest, humble, godly, wise. 
Pity ever in her Eyes, 
Patience ever in her Breast ; 
Great in Good, in Evil least, 
A loving wife, a mother dear. 
Such she was who now lies here.'' 

And there was need of all these virtues in the wife of a prison- 
keeper. Sir George Reynell was the Marshall of the Bench, the 
prison was but a few doors from the church. This Reynell was 
not very creditably mixed up with Lord Bacon's downfall.' 

' The case is thus, according to Lord Bacon's answer to the charge : — "My 
servant delivered me 200/. from Sir George Reynell, my near ally, who had 
received former favours of me. " The fact is, however, that something not very 
creditable was going on in the cause of Reynell and Peacock, in which Bacon 
was judge. Etheldred, Reynell's wife, " the great in good, in evil least," was the 
daughter of one Peacock ; but the good angel was dead now, or of little inflnence 
over such a nature as his, and so Reynell is free to persecute simple zealots and to 



86 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Like the next marshall, Reynell was not very tolerant of zealots. 
In 1616 a petition conies from one, alleging that Sir George Reynell 
has long plotted to have him destroyed in prison (it vsras easily to 
be done ; on the principle of killing no murder, it was only to put 
him, like Uriah, in the forefront of the battle with the causes of 
death). However, the petitioner dares not, as he says, but continue 
his heavenly profession, " five years buried in the King's Bench 
Gaol." * Sir George himself died, and was buried at St. George's 
in 1628. To proceed with our epitaphs, here is one, 1588 : — 

" Here under lyeth buryed — ^James Savadge, that late was | 
The Yeman of the Mule Saddels [ unto our good Queen's grace. | 
Two Wyves lie had and manyed | while God did lende him lyfe, | 
The fyrste was calde Elizabeth; | Ann was his latter wyfe. | 
Of whom fyve Children he begat, | two Sonnes, and Daughters three, | 
Who with hym and hys former Wyfe, | from hence deceesed bee. | 
Hee dyd depart this mortal Lyfe | the eight and twentie daye | 
Of March last past ; wee hope to God | with him to rest for aye.'' 

He left some " Angel Rents " to the poor. 

Master William Evance, 1690, a charitable donor. On a large 
stone monument, against the south wall of the chancel, is a quaint 
inscription, reminding the people — 

"See now, all ye that love the Poore, how God did guide his wayes, 
Ten score and eight are served with bread in two and fifty dayes. 
More than many would have done, to have yielded any share i 
Praise God ye Poore, who gave to him so provident a care." 

Another, 1695, to the most ingenious mathematician and writing 
master, John Hawkins, who lived near St. George's Church, now 

' ' Reduc'd to dust, screen'd here from mortal eyes, 
Resting 'till the last Trximp sounds. Dead, arise ! " 

Some think that Hawkins was alter ego for Cocker the arithmetician, 
whose name has come down as a proverb to us : to be right in our 
figures is to be " according to Cocker." I am told by the sexton, 

bribe judges. A diamond ring, value 500/., was given to Lord Bacon, who after 
his troubles, in his last will, says, "the great diamond I would have restored to 
Sir George Reynell." Spedding's ' Lord Bacon,' vol. vii. pp, 228, 258. 
* Roll's Publications, Dom. Add. 1580-1625, p. 552, 



EDWARD COCKER, AND HAWKINS. 87 

says Hatton/ " that at the west end, within the church near the 
school, was buried^ the famous Mr. Edward Cocker, a person well 
skilled in arithmetic." Pepys ' cannot find a man skilled enough to 
engrave the silver plates of his sliding rule, " so I got," as he says, 
" Cocker the famous writing master to do it and I set an hour by 
him to see him design it all ; and strange it is to see him, with his 
natural eyes to cut so small at his first designing it, and read it all 
over without any missing, when for my life I could not with my 
best skill read one word or letter of it ; but it is use. I find the 
fellow by his discourse very ingenious : and among other things, a 
great admirer, and well read in the English poets, and undertakes 
to judge of them all, and not impertinently." As Pepys saw him 
as Cocker and not as Hawkins it must be so, unless Cocker, who 
appears to have been a disciple of Bacchus as well as of the Muses, 
found it convenient after to live close by the Mint (a refuge for 
people in difficulties) as Hawkins.' The second edition of the 
arithmetic is subscribed John Hawkins, n' St. George's Church. 
The first edition, i2mo., 1678, of which only three or four copies 
are known, sells for a very high price : one has fetched 8/. los. ; 
another in 1874 sold at Sotheby's for no less a sum than 14/. los. 
There was a fifty-sixth edition in 1767. 

Many distinguished and titled people seem to have been buried 
at St. George's, but so many of them came from the gaols close at 
hand that the presumption is they were either no better than they 
should be, or they were under some misfortune ; for instance, John 
Tod, who had been Bishop of Down and Dromore, 1607, now comes 
out of the Marshalsea to be buried. Formerly a Romanist and a 
Jesuit, but professing himself a Protestant, obtained promotion ; 
called to account for malpractices, he at length resigned his 
bishopric, and departed the realm without licence f the result was 
he went to the Gatehouse first, then to the Marshalsea, and died 
there in 1615. Sir Edward Tarbuck, King's Bench, 1617; Sir 

' 'New View of London,' 1708. 
8 About 1677. 

' 'Diary,' 1664, August loth. 

' My copy of Cocker's Dictionary, by Hawkins, was printed at tlie Looking- 
Glass on London Bridge. 

» H. Cotton, 'Fast. Eccles. Hibern-' 



8 8 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

W. Bodham, 1619; Sir Charles North, K.B., Lord Peaseley and 
Lady Pasley, 1664; 1686, Sir George Walker, K.B., i.e., King's 
Bench ; 1690, Richard Atkyns, buried by his friends, ruined on the 
King's side, and for his loyalty in debt in the Marshalsea, where 
he died. 

John Rush worth, 1690, aged eighty- three, outliving mind and 
memory, is buried here. A sad fate his ; but the historian says, 
he, so unlike the people of his time, did not avail himself 0/ the situations 
he held. A member of Cromwell's Parliaments, secretary to Fair- 
fax, greatly mixed up in confidential matters, he was author of 
the ' Historical Collections,' " with their infinite rubbish and their 
modicum of jewels."^ Sir Charles Manners, "eldest knight of 
England," from the King's Bench. Lord Ruthin, and other 
" unfortunate noblemen," are also among the dust of St. George's, 
Southwark. 

The Lenthalls are much too big to be overlooked. Aubrey says 
that on the south wall of the chancel of St. George's Church was 
a large painting on wood, in memory of several of the family, 
nineteen of them, — at the head Sir John Lenthall, Knight, and 
Marshall of the King's Bench. The most noted of this family was 
the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Lenthall. Like 
the rest of his family, anxious and successful in money-making ; 
and among the money-making contrivances of the time the ofBce 
of Marshall of the Bench, or farmer of any prison, was for any 
unscrupulous hard man a very rich one. The office " was in the 
Crown; soon after 1617 it became vested in William Lenthall 
with an enormous mortgage against him ; this mortgage went on 
increasing against the family, until in 1753 it was more than 
30,000/. ; evidently not a very good thing for the creditors, as it 
was agreed to take, as we should now say, 6^. 6d. in the pound. 
This condition of things involved extortion, terrorism, and cruelty 
to the prisoners; "get much, give little," was the proved and 
practised maxim. Accordingly, the Lords (Calenders) ' tell us how 
complaints thickened, and that a climax came in 1640-1 — charges 
of cruelty, leading even to death. Formidable petitions of all the 

' Carlyle's 'Cromwell,' vol. iii. p, 12. 

' Manning and Bray, vol. iii, App. xx. 

= Historical MS. Commission, 4tli Report, see Index, Lenthall. 



SIR JOHN LENTHALL, AND BONNER. 89 

poor prisoners in the common gaol of the King's Bench, being 
sixty-six in number, came, complaining of the cruelty and oppression 
of Sir John Lenthall, Marshall, and other officers of the prison, 
and praying inquiry, giving names of petitioners, statement of 
grievances, and lists of witnesses who could swear to each particu- 
lar. Lenthall was loose in his management of some prisoners, for 
a consideration, no doubt, and very hard with others. One in- 
teresting incident among the rest shows this.^ Anthony Browne, 
one of the Montagues of the Close, in 1641, petitions that Sir John 
Lenthall may be called upon to answer, for that he allows one 
Joyners, imprisoned for debt to him, to go about and spend money 
prodigally, leaving the honest debts of his creditors unsatisfied. 
Sir John is very active against sectaries, and, truth to say, some 
of them were violent and indiscreet enough to give one inclined 
to persecute ample excuse. Pepys ° says, in his man of the world 
kind of way, " yesterday Sir J. Lenthall, in Sowthwarke, did 
apprehend about 100 Quakers and other such people, and sent some 
to gaol at Kingston." Afterwards, in 1664, touched by a like scene, 
he says, " I saw several poor creatures carried by for being at a 
conventicle. I would to God they would be more wise, and either 
conform or not be catch'd." All this made it at length too warm 
for Sir John, and, notwithstanding his relative the Speaker, certainly 
not too scrupulous when money was to be had, he is now, 1641, spoken 
of as the late keeper, and Sir William Middleton is the Deputy- 
Marshall. Not a nice family these Lenthalls, upon the whole. 

In 1560 Seth Holland, a celebrated divine, is buried here. 
Last, but not least, Bonner. He and Gardiner the wolf and fox of 
the Church. The fox, who had done as much or more in the way 
of atrocity, died opportunely, and was buried with honour, but, as 
Hallam says, " certainly not an honest man." Bonner now at last, in 
1569, is dead in the Marshalsea, where he had been ten years ; he 
was hastily buried at night for fear of the people's fury, and in the 
ground outside St. George's Church. One would have thought he 
might have been forgotten in ten years. First in full power, busy 
making proselytes by terror and torment, then deprived and in the 
Marshalsea ; then 1553 — but I must copy the words of the * Grey 

* Lord Calender's Hist. MS. Com. 4th Rep. p. 114. 

* August, 1663. 



90 OLD SOtJTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Friars' Chronicle': " The 5th of August, at seven o'clock at night, 
came home Edmund Bonner from the Marshalsea, like a bishop ; 
all the people by the way bade him welcome home, man and 
woman, and as many of the women as might kissed him." In 
1 5 59 again and finally to the Marshalsea, and to the churchyard 
of St. George's close at hand by night, with other prisoners. I 
have a note of a miserable squabble over prison necessaries denied 
to him ;' but on other and good evidence he was on the whole 
humanely treated, and indulged with as much liberty as might be 
had in that pestilential place, the Marshalsea. Some other burials 
may be noted without comment, as for one reason or another 
interesting. Robert Webb and Thomas Acton, i6t,i, prest to death ■' 
James Staplehurst, 1651, killed by the falling of the earth at y« 
Fort (in Blackman Street) ;' a Chrysome ^ from the thatched barn 
in St. George's Fields. There are many entries of Chrysomes. 
1664, October 6, Ann, the wife of Robert Dixon, drowned in the 
Thames. A sad story follows. October 14, Robert Dixon drowned 
in the Thames. Abigail Smith, 1666, poisoned herself, buried in 
the highway near the Fishmongers' Almshouses,^ i.e., by the 

° " 1549. Edmund Boner, beynge prisoner in the Marchelse the viij day of 
January, the knyght marchalle takynge away hys bedde, and soo that he had no 
more to lye in but straw and a coverlet for the space of viij days, for because 
he wolde not geve the knyght marchall xli or a gowne of that price." — ' Grey 
Friars' Chronicle.' 

' Old Hobson, the Londoner, 1607, says — and "as he were pressed to death 
he cried more weight, " — he wanted to be out of his miseiy. Two or three days, 
which it often took slowly to kill a 'man in this way, was a long refinement of 
agony. 

' In the troublous times of the first Charles and his parliament, London was 
surrounded with walls and forts. This refers to the one in Blackman Street, 
probably minous and not yet cleared away. See for plate and description of this 
and others in Southwark, in Kent Street, at the Dog and Duck, and at St. 
George's Fields. — Manning and Bray, vol. iii. 657. 

' Children dying within a month of birth, and buried in the anointed baptismal 
cloth or crisom ; hence, for shortness, the children were ' ' Chrysomes. " 

' My friend, Dr. Iliff, lately found some remains of a youth or female, which 
might have been buried even so long ago as Abigaill Smith was, but the remains 
lately found had been mutilated ; the hands and feet had apparently been rudely 
chopped off, whether before or after death caimot now be told ; the bones were 
small, delicate, and light, and there were fragments of very poor clothing, and a 



BURIALS AT ST. GEORGE's. PRISONS. 9 1 

Elephant and Castle; "Ann Digwid, widdow, who lived 10 1 
yeards, having had 7 husbandes," buried September, 1654 (no 
apparent deceit, but not verified); one drowned in a well in the 
Mint ; Roger Dombey hanged himself, and was buried by special 
licence of the Ordinary ; Glory Kilborne hanged himself in Hol- 
lands House, in a silk hose, and was laid in the churchyard. So 
there was some distinction made even among suicides. Showing the 
saintly nomenclature of the time, the three daughters of Ezekoill 
Braithwait, Faith, Hope, and Charity, are buried in 1666. Joane, 
Alice, Judith, Dorothy, Margery, and even Silence are common 
names. 1625, August, the plague destroys 471, the monthly 
average being 30 ; 1636, September, 301, the monthly average 20. 
1665, August, burials, 413 ; September, 728. What must the 
prisons have been like just now, bounded by open ditches, and 
the people lying close in much filth and privation. No wonder 
they cried out, and that to be imprisoned in these foul dens of the 
Borough was often certain death. The registers of St. George's 
tell this sad tale only too surely. 

THE PRISONS OF SOUTHWARK. 

It is a not unnatural transition to pass from the half-brutal but 
respectable marshals to their prisons, just noted, all close at hand. 
The White Lyon a few doors off; almost next door to that, the 
King's Bench ; further on, the south-west end of where King 
Street now is, the Marshalsea ; the Compter, where St. Margaret's 
Church had been ; and within a couple of stones'-throws of that, 
the Clink, which last does not, however, concern us now. As to 
the word half-brutal,^ — 1606, Draft of an Act for reformation, &c., 
recites that by the ill-conduct of the officers called Marshalls, the 
court is scandalized and the subjects oppressed ; court and prisons 
one mass of corruption and cruelty. 

THE WHITE LYON, Stow says, had been a common hosterie 
for travellers, and was first used as a gaol about 1558; Corner 



knife. 1 give no oplni&n as to fact, but as to possibility, it might even have been 
Abigaill Smith herself. A tragic story anyhow was connected with those pitiful 
remains. 

' 'Hist. Man. Commission,' App. 4th Report, p. n8i 



92 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

says 1538, but he mistook Stow,' who says, ed. 1593, "within 
forty years last." This prison was within a few houses of St. 
George's Church, upon or close to the site of the new Marshalsea 
at the beginning of this century; the premises are now, 1877, 
occupied by a cheesemonger. The White Lyon prison must not 
be mistaken for the well-known inn of the same name, the site of 
which is now covered by the railway approach near London 
Bridge.^ In 1 569 Mr. Cooke, the keeper of the White Lyon, is 
paid charges for three prisoners by a charitable Papist gentleman ; 
and in the following year this Mr. Copley, who is abroad for his 
own safety, pays more charges for fellow religionists. _ The exact 
site of the Whyte Lion is shown in some passages of Thomas 
Hospital MS., 1 568-1 571,'' in which Thomas Cooke asks repairs of 
a gutter between the Black Bull and the Whytt Lyon prison ; 
afterwards a lease is granted of this Black Bull public-house by 
the governors to the keeper of the prison. The Black Bull, No. 
149, was until lately next door north of the prison. This fixes 
exactly the site of the prison, and also makes the fact clear that 
this White Lyon was the prison in 1568. The prison was a 
criminal prison, the appointed gaol for the county of Surrey ; it 
was much occupied by, among the rest, religious people suffering 
for conscience' sake ; Udall, a fierce enemy of the bishops, was 
here in 1593 ; "if they silence me," he says, "I shall have more 
leisure to write, and then I will give them such a blow as will 
make their hearts ache." ' He was apparently one of the fierce 
Marprelate men.^ Alas ! the good man's own heart suffered most 
in the contest: he asks from his prison to be allowed to hear 
sermons, and to walk in the fields ; he is getting dreadfully weary 
of the White Lyon, " three years I have been in durance, allow me 
my liberty," he says, " and I will go away to Syria for two years "; 
but he dies in prison, for his constancy to his friend Penry as much 
as anything, and is buried in the churchyard of St. George's. A 

' Thorns, ed. reprint, 1593. 

* See Corner, ' Inns of Southwark,' who is uncertain, but there can be no 
doubt now. 

* In my possession. 

- *Di sraeli, ' Calamities of Authors.' 

' Dr. Waddington says no, and Udall denied it. 



THE WHITE LION PRISON. 93 

gross judicial iniquity, says Hallam. What wonderful testimony 
could this old churchyard, amidst the prisons of Southwark, give^ 
if we had but its old records ! 1599. John Rigby, a Roman Catholic 
gentleman, is here, and, because he will not go to church, he now 
goes to a most cruel death at St. Thomas a Watering. A poor 
woman, 1628, is in for petty stealing, condemned to death is 
reprieved, but nearly meets the same end by starvation in prison. 
In 1640 comes to the House of Lords a petition of Nathaniel 
Wickens, late servant to Mr. Prynne ; three years since he was 
apprehended, and made close prisoner in the White Lyon ; he 
was required to tell the secrets of his master ; he did not, however. 
The three years have not tamed him, nor the fine of 1,000/. ; he 
prays liberty, that he may better agitate and demonstrate his 
grievances.' His master's case is worth thinking over ; William 
Prynne's obstinacy and Laud's cruelty may be read in common 
histories, notably in Green's ' History of the English People.' 

Now in 1662 there is a fierce squabble between the two prison - 
keepers, Harris and Hall. Harris boasts that he arrested Hugh 
Peters,^ and is busy in his office. Hall takes the opportunity to let 
out some Quakers, while as he says, his partner " is gone out man- 
catching." Hall will not work with Harris, — in fact, one may have 
a suspicion that Hall is designedly here to help his religious friends. 
Arthur Fisher, a Quaker, and some forty-six others, are liberated. 
Whitehead, another Quaker, petitions, stating that " he is imprisoned 
for meeting in the worship of God." Harris cannot go on with his 
partner, and at length procures his removal because he is " not 
faithful." Sewell ^ tells the story ; he says, " The Quaker meetings 
are now, 1662, greatly disturbed ; some, notably Arthur Fisher, 
and his friends-, are taken to the White Lyon, and after some 
weeks there are brought to the bar to plead to the following 
indictment : " The Jurors do present upon oath that Arthur Fisher, 
late of the parish of St. Olave, Southwark, yeoman, Nathaniel 
Robinson, and John Chandler, are wicked, dangerous, and seditious 
sectaries and disloyal persons, and above the age of 16 years ; that 
they have obstinately refused to repair to some church, chapel, or 

* 'Hist. MS. Commission,' 4th Report, App. 31. 

* Secretary to Cromwell. 

' 'Hist. Quakers,' ed. 1834, vol. ii. pp. 14-15. 



94 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

usual place of common prayer. After this they are found present 
at an unlawful meeting or conventicle, under colour and pretence of 
the exercise of religion." They are imprisoned without bail, and 
unless they submit, to abjure the realm in three months. 

1665. Some fierce Anabaptists are here, forty of them making 
much noise, and with pistols on the table ; well backed up 
apparently, as they have a costly chamber to themselves. South- 
wark is full of " sectaries "; they make the keeper's life uncom- 
fortable, although he had apprehended Hugh Peters, and forty or 
fifty of His Majesty's enemies in a day. He says he has quite lost 
his trade among the factious people of Southwark, and he is labell'd 
with the name of "Saul the Persecutor." by these malicious folk ; but 
the King, Charles the Second, " divinely set over the people," ' is 
with him, and for his activity, loyalty, and diligence, commends his 
appointment to the keepership of the White Lyon. The King's 
impression took active shape : " The justices of Southwark are 
required, 1662, to take orders for the suppression of frequent unlaw- 
ful meetings of Quakers and Fifth Monarchy Men in St. Olave's, 
and to send note of it to the Council "; and even this — " No one not 
well affected is to keep an alehouse or victualling-house." Further, 
December 1662, one Harte alias Gregory, living in Five Foot Lane 
(Russell Street now), is agent to engage disaffected persons. He 
is a leather dresser in Five Foot Alley. Harris 'must go and 
apprehend this quarter-master and captain-lieutenant, who goes 
by four names, and was one of Cromwell's people. It is noted that 
the wife lives in Southwark. On December 19th, 1663, Gregory 
with all his aliases, is in the Tower.' Imagination founded on 
rigid fact is a gift. One can see squabbles and meannesses, aims 
after good, and sturdy obstinacy for the right, cooped up together 
in these mean, pestilential, filthy dungeons; and without any 
imagination it can be seen how all this helped to form the best side 
of the English character. 

The old prison is now, 1681, getting ruinous ; the prisoners are 
not safe there. It might be repaired ? No ; it is too ruinous. It 
must be sold, and a new prison built. 1694. Nothing done ; the 

2 Form of prayer and thanksgiving, 29th May. Prayer-Boole, 1662, 
' Rolls Dom. 1662-3. 



THE WHITE LION AND NEW MARSHALSEA. 95 

prisoners had been for some time kept for safety at the Marshalsea, 
and the old place had been used as a Bridewell, or House of Cor- 
rection. Moreover, at length some repairs had been done. Mr. 
Lowman, of the Marshalsea, had been " agreed with " to keep the 
prisoners, and had been allowed the use of the White Lyon. In 
the maps of the locality up to 1746 (Rocques), the name of the 
spot is Bridewell Alley. In 1 799, Layton's Yard, and Angel Court 
and Alley appear instead ; the last, as the successor of a Bride- 
well or House of Correction, is very significant, suggestive indeed 
of a casting out of devils, that the angels might come in. A 
"distillery," in 1746, gives place to the new Marshalsea, which 
we see in Horwood's map, i799- In 1695, private people hold the 
lease of the White Lyon, and will not give it up under 250?. ; too 
much the magistrates say ; so the prisoners are, as it were, 
farmed by Lowman at the Marshalsea, he giving security ; 
accordingly, the Marshalsea is for the time the prison for the 
county ; Lowman having granted to him in 1 596, a lease for a 
term of fifty-nine years. In 1772 the' House of Correction is too 
bad even for correction ; but it is suggested that there is the appro- 
priately named " Hangman's Acre," White Lion estate too, at the 
east corner of what is now Friar Street and Gravel Lane, which 
figures at length as " the soap manufactory." Accordingly a new 
House of Correction is built on the Hangman's Acre, at a cost of 
2,500/. ; the name may be seen in the maps. A rather curious 
difficulty appears ; the new place is in St. George's Fields, and there 
are numerous rights of common belonging to the inhabitants ; this 
or a like difficulty also occurred in building the Magdalen, not far off, 
and Acts of Parliament had to be obtained in each case.^ In 18 n, 
and this finishes my notice of the White Lyon, the^site of the old 
public house and prison is bought, and 8,000/. is spent in building 
the new Marshalsea in the same place. This has now in its turn 
disappeared, but it is immortalized by Dickens in ' Little Dorrit,' 
and the Father of the Marshalsea eclipses, at least in sentiment, the 
Marshals. 

Southwark has generally been a very marked specimen of the 
prevailing character of the time. When rough, here were the 

■* Manning and Bray, vol, iii. App. xii., and 'Report of Charities,' re 
Magdalen. 



g6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

roughest ; when the Papal church was uppermost, here was a nest 
of abbots and priors; when rollicking ways and rude sports, 
no place like the Bankside ; when religious independence was 
stirring, here was the nest of sectaries ; and now trade is lord, it 
is becoming famous for trades and for its numerous fine ware- 
houses and wharfs. 

The Brandons, some of whom were Southwark Marshals — 
one of them, Duke Charles, of the Marshalsea and the King's 
Court, others of them of the King's Bench — were essentially 
Southwark people, of the man-at-arms or fighting sort. 1443, 
Sir Walter Manny was Marshal of the Marshalsea. 1469, one of 
the Brandons (Edward) was Marshal. There was an Edward 
Brandon, to whom was left 1 3^. 4d. in the will of William Bur- 
cestre. Knight of St. Olave's ; but this was sixty-two years before. 
But it is enough to show that the Brandons were rising. As the 
Brandons were the most notable Marshals of the King's Bench, this 
brings me to the prison. Close to the White Lyon, and north of it, 
were the old Bridewell (that is White Lyon) Alley, now Angel 
Court"; Leyton's Buildings, the site of the Old King's and 
Queen's Bench Prison: King's Bench Alley, now or lately 
known as Leyton's Grove. Leyton's Buildings still preserves very 
much the shape of the prison and its grounds. In Rocque's map, 
1746, it is shown as extending with its gardens and trees east, 
almost to Crosby Row, as the Marshalsea further north also did. 
As might be expected, there was the " common jayle," and the 
"Upper Bench." The common gaol might be known by the de- 
scription of G. M.' of Graye's Inn, Gent., who is unlucky enough to 
be a prisoner here. His description might be supposed to come 
out of the spleen of a disgusted prisoner ; but afterwards, and from 
other testimony, it appears to have been nearly if not quite as 
bad as he says. A rude frontispiece of a wicket gate and a gaoler 
introduces us. "As to health," he says, " it hath more diseases 

= Doggett, the player, 1 670-1 721, the friend of watermen, lived at the Angel 
next the Bench, which sign, no doubt, accounts for the Angel Alley here — indeed, 
most of the courts up and down the Borough were named of inns, at one time or 
other on the site of each. 

" Geffray Mynshull, writing to his uncle, Mathew Manwaring, from the King's 
Bench Prison, in Southwark, 1618. 



DISEASE AND DEATH IN THE MARSHALSEA. 97 

predominant in it than the pest-house in the plague time." This 
is a matter of course, for the place " stinks more than the Lord 
Mayor's Dog-g-e-house or Paris Garden in August." ' As to tem- 
perance, " it is nothing els but a great alehouse, for every 
chamber is nothing els but a continuall drinking room"; as to 

charges, " it is more chargeable than the , and will consume 

thee, and will do anything for money " ; as to accommodation, it 
is " a full sea when three men are forced to lie thrusting in one 
bed." Some prisoners if pleasant, plus " other considerations " 
might go outside a bit, so when they or some of them to whom 
the privilege can be accorded desire to go abroad, there are 
" keepers to go abroad with them." By way of corroboration, as 
to health and foulness and straitness of room, — ' About the 
middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign many were committed for debt, 
trespass, and other causes ; "by reason of which streightning and 
pestering one another, great Annoyances and Inconveniences grew 
among the Prisoners, that occasioned the death of many. So that 
within six years well near a hundred prisoners died, and many 
were sick and hardly recovered, some are still sick and in danger of 
their lives through a certain contagion called the Sickness of the 
House, and this happened chiefly, or rather only, of the small or 
few Rooms and the many persons abiding in them, and there by 
want of Air breathing in one another's faces as they lay, which 
could not but breed Infection ; especially when any infectious Person 
was removed from other Prisons thither. And many times it so 
happened, namely in the Summer Season, that through want of 
Air and to avoid Smoldring (smothering) they were forced in the 
Night time to cry out to the Marshal's Servants to rise and open the 
Doors of the Wards, whereby to take Air in the Yard for their 

' "Paris Garden, remarkable for ditches, is a place for City refuse and other 
matters, in accord with such associations." "Paris Garden is the place on the 
Thames Bankside where bears are kept and baited, and was antiently so called 
from Robert de Paris, who had a house there in Richard II .'s time, which King, 
by proclamation, ordained that the butchers of London should have a con- 
venience in that place for receipt of their garbage and entrails of beasts, to the end 
that the City might not be annoyed thereby." Notes and Queries, 2nd S., 
iii., 417, citing Close Rolls. Roughly, Paris Garden is now Christ Church Parish, 
Blackfriars. 

« Strype's Stow, temp. Q. Eliz., B. 4, p. 18, 

H 



98 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

refreshing. A Petition" went up shewing further, that their place 
of prayer was a common room, with a continual passage through. 
Sir Owen Hopton Lieutenant of the Tower, Fleetwood the Re- 
corder, and several Aldermen and Justices certify to the truth of 
the statement, and that there was not one convenient or spare 
room in the whole house ; even they, the judges, were obliged to 
use a little low room or parlor adjoining the street, — in fact, but for 
other compassionate considerations toward the prisoners, they 
would be content to tarry from thence." The petitioners remind 
Her Highness, that the Marshal is answerable for a yearly rent, 
and that it is her principal gaol. Further, the doctoring when any 
was vouchsafed, was of the rudest. G. M., already cited, tells of 
the barber's shop and the wounded man carried there to be 
dressed ; but that was the time of the College of Barber-Surgeons.^ 
"What happened from this state of things may be seen later on in 
the burial registers of St. George's. St. George's was so much the 
centre of the gaol district that it can scarcely be imagined what 
we have lost in the destruction of the old parish records. But one 
or two striking incidents from other districts will tell us all about 
it. Prisoners, alive after a gaol fever has done its worst, sea- 
soned or unsusceptible, are yet able to convey disease to others, 
and in its most deadly form they sometimes bring the disease into 
Court. At Oxford in 1577 ^^1 oi" nearly all present judges, and 
sheriffs included, about three hundred persons, died. In i730j 
at Taunton, a judge, sergeant, sheriff, and some hundreds more 
died. In 1750, two judges, the Lord Mayor, one alderman, and 
others died of fever ; and so the people in the gaols revenged 
themselves." Again, as to temperance, during one Sunday six 
hundred pots of beer are brought into a Southwark gaol.' The 
common side at the back of the prison drew its five hundred 
butts a year.^ Out of common gratitude and mutual good fellow- 
ship, the Brewer Halsey could say of the Deputy -keeper Acton 

" The prayer of poor prisoners for- air, the original much obliterated. Lans- 
downe MS., 108 (21), B. M. 

' Smollett, who was an inmate of a later gaol in Southwark, gives a picture of 
the Barber-Surgeons in ' Roderick Random.' 

' Howard on Prisons, 1777. 

' Howard. 

■" Key to the King's Bench, 1793. 



PRISON MISERIES. 99 

— then on trial for cruelty ending- in death — that he was a man of 
very good character, honest and punctual in his dealings/ which 
was in this case, as we should say, a little too strong ; and the 
Marshal ° could threaten with close confinement those of the free 
benchers who would not vote for Halsey, — " log-rolling " the 
Americans call this process. A celebrated prisoner Tate, of Brady 
and Tate celebrity, is said to have written Halsey's address ; but 
for all this Halsey lost the election. Further back, 1641, came this 
suggestive petition' from Sir Arthur Gorges, now a prisoner in the 
King's Bench : — " On the i8th, in the house of Sir John Lenthall, the 
servants of the new Marshall drag the petitioner by the arms and 
legs into a room in the prison, fitter for a rogue than a civil man, 
and so left him for the night, and this because he refused them 
money for drink."^ 

By way of introduction to the Queen's Bench or to the Marshalsea, 
the debtor if his debt be but a trifle, is at once called upon — for 
turning the key, 14^. 4^.; garnish, 2s. 6d.; chamberlain and nurse, 
4^. If these payments are not .-nade he has no help but to go to 
the common side, where bare boards, bare walls, and nothing but 
the alms-basket to live upon await him.' But he has besides to run 
the gauntlet of the other prisoners, the gaol birds themselves ; the 
garnish must be paid ; it is either pay or strip, the fee or some of 
his clothes. The marshall and his officers do the rest, if any 
" rest " there is. If not, as there was little or no provision for bed 
or food, it was very much a preparation for death by starvation or 
pestilential disease. In one report " the prisons are lousy and with- 
out the usual offices." The piteous prayer of some fiftie poore 
men in another gaol tells the sad story — "they are lying upon 
the bare boordes languishing in great neede, colde, and miserie, 
almost famished and hunger starved to death, and so they pray 
Christian and Godly charitie against this holie and blessed time of 

' Trial of Acton, 1729. 

^ Memoirs of Mint and Queen's Bench, 1712. Halsey was a candidate for 
Parliament. 

' Hist. MS. Commission, 4th Report, App. p. 102. 

* Lords' Journals, cited in Report. 

° Manning and Bray, vol. iii. App. xxv, 

H 2 



lOO OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Easter." 1 In this lower depth a lower still — the Hell, or Hole, as 
it was called, for those who could not pay anything. 

Charitable people left- money and bread for poor prisoners. 
Almost numberless instances appear of people leaving in their wills 
bread and money for poor prisoners. Nell Gwyn, more respectably 
Mrs. Margaret Symcott, leaves to the poor debtors in Southwark 65 
penny loaves once in eight weeks ; the Drapers' Company 60 penny 
loaves in December; Thomas Cottle, of St. Dunstan's, a fore 
quarter of beef, 27st. 61b., and a peck of oatmeal at Midsummer; 
Sir Thomas Gresham, 2/. los. quarterly, all for this prison ; with 
many another gift, as might have been seen in the list hanging up 
in the prison in 1802. Another resource was " the Basket," which 
the appointed " Basket Carrier" carried about the streets in which 
to receive food or other gifts for the poor prisoners. Brownists in 
1632 are " living on the basket "; and so body and soul were some- 
times kept together. All this was consistent ■B'ith great lenity, on 
certain conditions tending to enrich the officers. In 164 1 a creditor 
complains how a prisoner walks abroad at pleasure, and does not 
pay his debts ; and the conditions of the rules much later showed 
often enough that rich men could live there in quasi-thraldom and 
not pay one farthing of their debts. One of these, a rich man — 
there is no accounting for tastes — was mean enough and dishonest 
enough to shoot himself rather than pay. 

Now the Marshals were kings in this miserable kingdom, and 
they learned to solve an almost insoluble problem — how to skin 
a flint, or to get a shirt off a naked man, as the saying is. As we 
have seen, they made no inconsiderable revenue by procuring satis- 
faction for thirsty souls. 

The Brandons, low in their origin, became great lords in South- 
wark. They were ready to fight, and were not very scrupulous ; with 
an exception or so they quite suited the times in which they lived. 
Sir William Brandon, in 1485, sends in his petition, stating how 
he had been Marshal, lawfully possessed ; the gift of the great 
Duke of Norfolk the Marshal of England, to whom the office at 
every voidance belonged ; that he. Sir William, had fled to sanctuary, 
to avoid the fury of the King, Richard III., and that he had been 
despoiled of his office. He is accordingly reinstated. Not long 
' Colkclion of Ballads and Broadsides, 1559-1597, Guildhall Libraiy. 



THE BRANDONS OP SOUTHWARK. lOI 

after he is the standard-bearer at Bosworth Field, and is cloven 
down and killed by his old enemy. He was the father of Duke 
Charles." His brother, Sir Thomas Brandon' is a great man at 
jousts, a man with a presence, who appears with much splendour 
and in a gold chain of 1,400/. value at the marriage of Arthur and 
Katherine of Arragon, the princess having to be met in St. 
George's Fields, and to be conveyed straight through Southwark, 
over London Bridge, to St. Paul's. In 1509, Sir Thomas is Mar- 
shal of the King's Bench, and uncommon in such times, dies hold- 
ing the office.* Duke Charles, son of Sir Willliam, and nephew of 
Sir Thomas, holds the office of Marshal of the King's Court and 
of the Marshalsea. He is a principal landlord, and is also Steward 
of Southwark. Like his master Henry VIII., he had several wives, 
and apparently not always in succession. He had not, however, 
the power as his master had, of beheading and marrying again 
a few days after. One of these Brandons (I cannot explain 
further) disgraced a family that he had entered ; to use the phrase 
of the time, " he had eaten the hen and all her chickens, and the 
King was like to have hanged him for it."^ The Duke Charles was 
not, or rather he was, remarkable for his spelling, which was 
phonetic, and varied as his ear varied. A simple sum in arith- 
metic was beyond him ; but he was courageous and strong, and 
fine to look upon, as indeed the King's sister thought. At a joust 
in France, when they sought to manage the duke by bringing a 
specially strong Alman^ — unfairly, as was thought — against him, 
he proceeded in quasi-English style, and the Alman, all man 
as he was, reckoned without his host. The duke in fact 
behaved thus : — " At last, by pure strength, he tooke his adversary 
about the necke, and pomeled him so about the head, that the blood 
issued out of his nose, and then they were parted," — If I might 
use a modern phrase of the ring, the Alman was " in chancery," — 
happily for a short time only. Of the duke, it must also be said, 

"^ Charles Brandon, who married Mary, sister to Henry VIII. 
Stow's 'Annals,' 1631, p. 483. The names vary; the 'Annals' say Thomas, 
another authority Robert. 

■* Rolls Papers, Henry VIII., 1515. 
' Paston, Knight's ed,, vol. ii. p. 128. 
^ A German. 



102 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE, 

that he was a very goodly man with the ladies, on account of his 
noble and manly presence ; but he was, so to say, of no account 
with diplomatists. In the great trial of his life, when but for for- 
tunate circumstance's, he might have lost his head, his lady was 
the diplomatist. She tells the King of France, while he, the King, 
is actually courting her, " Sir, I beseech you, let me alone, and 
speak no more to me of these matters, and I will tell you my whole 
mind." And what was her whole mind? She told him, and 
moulded the simple king like wax. She also moulded a king that 
was not simple, like wax — her brother Henry, who was so hard to 
other women. After a word or two on the point, how that her 
brother had agreed if she would marry the French King, she 
should afterwards, in case of his death (he was sickly), marry as 
she liked, she writes, " Whereupon, sir, I put my Lord of Suffolk 
(Charles Brandon) in choice, whether he would accomplish the 
marriage within four days or else never"; and so she a^ks her 
brother, inspired by loving impudence, " have compassion on us 
both, pardon our oilences, and please your grace, write to me and 
my Lord of Suffolk some comfortable words." What could he do 
after this but celebrate the nuptials with great pomp at Green- 
wich, and keep these two attractive people so far as could be, 
always about him. This loving woman, having the only bit of tender 
kindly nature among all concerned, proved however an exacting 
tyrant to her husband. He excuses his absence from the Council 
and to Wolsey ; he was twice in London, but had to return. His 
wife was evidently very ill, and deeply attached to Brandon, would 
not suffer him to be away. Now I come to look at this episode ' 
of the Marshal of the Bench and his wife, it is evidently a long 
way off from the prison ; but it is at least a set-off against the 
picture of that most miserable den. 

I have already noted another Marshal, Sir George Reynell, 
and that other, Lenthall, neither of them worth a thought as people 
of mark in history, both of them able to do the best for themselves 
in their sinister office. Lenthall, like Brandon, had a great interest 
in Southwark. Corner^ tells us that Margaret Lenthall, the wife 

' Brewer's inimitable Pajsers generally for this. Lettere and Papers, Henry 
VIII. Rolls publications. 
' ' Archteolog, ' vol. xxv. 



"HELL IN EPITOME." I03 

of Roland Lenthall, ancestor of Speaker Lenthall, was (fifteenth cen- 
tury) a co-inheritor of rents tolls and rights in Southwark part of 
the restored estates of an Earl of Arundel. Title to the office of 
Marshal of the King's Bench among- the Lenthalls was therefore 
colourable. 

In such a disturbed place as Southwark was in the early time the 
prisons were far from safe. The old Borough laid quite in the way 
of any attack upon London and the Court, and Southwark was not 
always unfriendly to the lawless invader. Here I do not confine 
myself to the Bench, as the prisons mostly suffered alike. In 
1376 the Marshal of the Marshalsea had infringed the City 
liberties, so the citizens took to lynch law, broke open the gates of 
the prison, and, luckily for the Marshal, did not find him. Then 
John of Gaunt annoyed the shipmen by too great leniency to a 
certain squire now in the Marshalsea,' who had killed a comrade 
of theirs ; so the shipmen broke open the prison, took the 
prisoner out, " sticked him as he had been a hog, and, having 
hanged him, they caused the trumpets to be sounded before them 
to their ships." In 1381, during Wat Tyler's insurrection, the 
King's Bench and the houses of the jurors and quest-mongers were 
broken down. In 1450, Cade recruited from the gaols. In 1504, 
" more part of the prisoners in the Marshalsea brake out. Some were 
taken and executed, especially two sea rovers (pirates), who were 
hanged on a tree by the Thames, and were to be seen there long 
after." ^ In other cases there was some leniency, — in 1507, in Lent 
time, the King let out many prisoners in for forty shillings, and 
some even who were in prison for ten pounds. In connexion with 
evils complained of, which could not now be even imagined, but 
which then had no remedy, what could be expected but outbreaks. 
In 1592 there is a riot in Southwark. It is chiefly the feltmakers. 
They meet at a play under pretence, the real object being to rescue 
a prisoner in the Marshalsea. The prisons are much alike, except 
that the Marshalsea had one time earned the name of " Hell in 
Epitome," long after endorsed by John Wesley, who says in his 
journal, 17S3 : — " I visited one in the Marshalsea Prison, a nursery 
of all manners of wickedness. Oh, shame to men," he says, " that 

' Strype's Stow, 1720, vol. ii., B. 4, p. 19. 
' Stow's 'Annals.' 



104 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

there should be such a place ! — such a picture of hell upon earth !" 
There is a most serious tumult in 1592. The Mayor speeds over, 
and hears how the Marshal's men deal hardly and roughly with the 
people, provoking them with hard dealing ; and he observes how 
the Marshal's men come out with daggers drawn, and bastinadoes^ 
in their hands beating the people,' and some of the people were 
slain. An appeal to the Earl Marshal was made. He, however, 
was offended that his people had been touched ! The result was 
that the aggressors were liberated, and those who had been 
assaulted were kept in prison. 

It needs not here to discriminate as to the people, some noble, 
and giving lustre to the English name ; some the lowest and vilest, 
who were prisoners in Southwark. It would be an intelligible key 
to the manners and crimes of the periods and to the history of 
the nation, to recount the prisoners and why they were in prison. 
Some have been noted, and others will be where it may tend to 
illustrate or to entertain. May 3rd, 1653, a list of prisoners is given 
in by Sir John Lenthall, Marshall of the Upper Bench. Colonel 
Pride, the author of ' Pride's Purge,' a political medicine, was one 
of this committee. This list comprises some in the common prison, 
mean people who are in for petty offences or for small sums, and 
who are poor and of no distinction ; some in the rules — there were 
rules in 1653; — these political and other offenders were in for large 
sums, — Earl Rivers, for 60,000/. ; Lord Monteagle, 7,000/. ; Sir 
Arthur Loftus, 2,000/., whose son is buried in St. George's in 1659 ;* 
Adam Loftus, 13,600/. Among the knights. Sir Charles Manners in 
1652, 700/. ; altogether 393 prisoners in for 976,122/. The return 
notes R., Rules ; P. H., Prison House ; C. P., Common Prison ; and 
C. G., Common Gaol. Just now, 165 3, there is an effort on the side of 
humanity in an act for the relief of poor prisoners really unable to 
pay their creditors, and of another prison it is stated that many 
had sworn and gone out. The Marshalsea, another prison nearer 

^ This bastinado was a curious instrument, known to be chiefly used among 
the Turks, and often referred to in the ' Arabian Nights Entertainments.' One of 
the barber's brothers suffered severely from it. 

' Strype's Stow, B. 4, p. 20. 

* Parish Records. The burial lists often point at names of ruined families, 
noble and gentle, living in the purlieus of the prisons. 



PRISON PLEASURES. 105 

the bridge, will not need a detailed account, as many matters 
already noted are common to them all. That this prison was not 
better than other places of the kind came out on inquiry. The keeper 
had loaded with irons, and had tortured and destroyed prisoners 
who were for debt under his care. The horrors of " the common 
side " far exceeded those of the Fleet." Complaints came that some 
were treated with laxity if not luxury, as though the prison were 
no prison. One debtor thus served will illustrate this phase, as the 
parliamentary inquiries and the trials did the other. 

Among the Rawlinson MSS., Oxford, is a journal of some SOO 
pages, by a musician, prisoner in the Marshalsea for debt, from 1728 
to 1729. The journalist had travelled much, and had published 
his travels ; he had also published some music ; had kept himself 
by playing at entertainments, and getting up concerts — no doubt, 
considering his talent, a very pleasant acquisition for such a place 
as the Marshalsea. This is how he went on in the prison : "Monday, 
1 0th June, got up exactly at five, walked up and down the ' castle ' 
till six; waked Mr. Elder, and then went and drank coffee at 
Mother Bradshaw's ; from thence came to Mr. Elders chamber, 
and drank sage tea ; sent for mackerell, which we ate for dinner ; 
Perry dined with us ; after dinner was sent for over the way at 
Bradshaw's, where I found a mighty agreeble young lady, who 
was so kind as to treat me with a bowl of punch. When she 
went away I came over to the Park, where I drank a little with 
Mr. Elder and a few more of the select fellow prisoners. About 
S or 6 Mr. Acton, our governor, invited me to take a glass of 
wine with him and some friends. We drank very hard till about 
ten, and when the prisoners were locked up, I gave Mr. Acton and 
his friends a tune or two on the trumpet. We set laughing, 
telling stories, singing, and drinking till about 3 in the morning. 
So we went to bed." Another entry tells how all this was going 
on at the time of the Commons' inquiry as to Acton's cruelty to 
prisoners. "Friday, 19 Sep., 1729, to see Mr. Acton in order to 
know how matters went on with regard to his bail.'" Curiously the 
foreman of the grand jury in this trial was a " Lord Palmeston." 

' Knight's ' Popular History,' vol. vi., p. 65, in which there is a picture, after 
Hogarth, of a man suffering from one of these dreadful instruments. 

* Mr, Halliwell-Phillipps's Collection. 'Letters of Authors,' vol. iii. 2f, 



I06 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

The select prisoners were by no means destitute of amusement. 
1 718. There is a leg of mutton treat in Axe and Bottle Yard; 
games of bowls are often noted. In 1603. " At the Marshalsea at 
bowls." 1753. A tennis court and booths are on the Bowling 
Green behind the Marshalsea during the fair. The bowling green 
was soon after this turned into a cabbage -garden. The names 
of Bowling Green Lane, and the more recent Tennis Court are 
thus explained In the little book, ' Hell in Epitome^ or a 
description of the Marshalsea, 17 18, pleasant names are 
facetiously given. The walks of the prison are, the Elysian 
Fields, the Cloystered Grove, the Park an enclosure so called. 
" If the prisoner has no food of his own, he is at liberty to chew 
the bars." Or it may be — 

Good relief he knows, 

Not in his creditors or foes, 

But in the scraps, which overflows 

The Basket ; 
But basket victuals, each man knows, 

Is leanly. 

Whether they get it or not, 

With notes loud as St. George's chimes, 
He knows the punctual hours, and climbs, 

For dinner.' 

To match this is a " King's Bench Litany," ribald enough, but 
worth notice as the recreation of some prison-bound rhymester — 

From creditors when cruel grown, 
From bailiffs and their crafty scent, 
From dining often with the Duke,' 
From paying homage to the pump, 
From taking of the ten pound act. 
From being overcome by drink. 
From lodging near a boghouse stink. 
From having stomachs and no chink. 
From asking food to be denied, 
From being turned to the common side — 

Libera nos Domine. 

' ' Fragmenta Carceris,' 1675. 

' " Duke Humphrey," ?. e. having nothing to eat, or " dining upon air." 



PRISONERS. 107 

From being sent to the Lion White, ^ 
From mouldy scraps in basket laid, 
From making pegs, ' that humble trade, 
From wooden blocks, to rest one's head, 
From all or any King's Bench bed. — 
One cries, I 'm cutting pegs all day. 
And others at the gate did pray. 

Duke Humphrey is the Master of the King's Bench Hall ; his 
court consists of some | who come with shoes that fear to touch 
the ground | some with half hose to shew their shins are sound, ] 
some with half sleeves poor souls, but ne'er a shirt | — and, as a sly 
hint at the state of the skin — Some so attended in their wretched state \ 
thousands did hourly round about them wait | . A mock sermon for the 
absent dinner — Fasting, says the parson, helps a man to be 
divine, in former ages since the world began | he that could fast 
was held an holy man | — and much more of the same sort, by 
Samuel Speed, a member of the royal society ; — these were of the 
free and easy and ribald sort. 

Great and distinguished people came, perforce, to live in these our 
Southwark dens. If it be not more or less a myth, for the circum- 
stances are not formally recorded in the old chronicles, Henry V. 
was a prisoner for assaulting the judge on behalf of his boon 
companions. The Falstaff time was full of traditions, which 
appeared after in the popular mind, and this, fact or no fact, was 
one. Beside "rovers," who came in flocks, and debtors, very 
many were in for " religion " — no matter which, for any that was 
not uppermost at the time. Robert Recorde, 1558, a good writer 
and physician — ' The Ground of Arts ' was his ; — he was in for 
debt, and died in prison. In 1540 some were in for the " supre- 
macy " ; and many went from prison to death for this cause. In 
■^543 Marbeck was a prisoner, chiefly for presuming to write the 
first English Concordance,'' making people so strangely and objec- 
tionably familiar with the Bible ! " His wife may see him in the 

8 "A lower depth." 

' A prison occupation, by which to earn a few pence. 

^ 'The Concordance,' first in English, Marbeck's. London, Richard GraftSn, 
printer, folio, 1560. In August, 1877, this precious volume (No. 812 in the 
Catalogue) was to be seen at the Caxton Exhibition among other wonderful 
treasures of the kind. 



I08 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Marshalsea, but she must be searched going in and out." In iSS7 
Richard Woodman, examined in the presence of 300 people at St. 
Mary Overies, who, weary or led that way, cried out " Away with 
him, and bring us another ! " and so he was carried again to the 
Marshalsea. Thomas Rose, who speaks to the godly, is soon in ; 
but he goes to the Clink in the Bankside. 1558, Bishop Sandys is 
in, and, with other preachers, will not come out when Wyatt 
opened the prison and besought them. The scene changes, and 
Bonner is in and out again. In 1561 he is here for the last time, 
until, in 1569, he dies in prison. 1567, Protestant Dissenters. 
1573) the prisons are full of preachers and people. iS8o, mostly 
for "Papistry." 1581, for not going to church. 1584, Brownists 
and Papists, the two extremes of opinion, in together. 1593, the 
so-called Marprelate men . i S92, friends of prisoners — these are not 
here for religion but meet at a play to concoct a rescue. 1623, Sir 
John Eliot, a great man in the Commons, and a most troublesome 
patriot, is in the Marshalsea, and ultimately dies in another prison. 
Selden touches the divine right of the priests, refuses to give bail 
for good behaviour, and is accordingly lodged in the Marshalsea, 
but, wiser than Eliot, does not think it necessary to die in prison. 
Baxter, 1686, for sedition and a hatred of episcopacy, found in his 
paraphrase of the New Testament, is badgered by Jeffreys, and 
lies in the King's Bench eighteen months. And so it goes on. An 
amazing number of literary celebrities one time or another have 
prison lodgings in our borough, some even writing their books in 
prison, — making hay whether the sun shines or not. 

A very touching episode, which must not be overlooked, is the 
imprisonment in the Bench and the sad fate of John Penry, who was 
said to be one of the violent anti-bishop or Marprelate writers. From 
Wales, he came to live in Long Lane and in the Borough Prison, , 
and so most unhappily, became one of our Southwark people. No 
doubt he was a bitter enemy of the Church, and, for himself, an 
indiscreet one. One wishes almost, as Pepys says, that he had 
" conformed or not got catched." His death was little less than 
a judicial murder. No doubt he was loyal according to his light, 
and suffered only for religion. The usual evidence was wofully 
strained to obtain a conviction. Courageous to the last, willing to 
die, but in no sense acquiescing in the justice of it, he leaves a wife 



WRITERS AND PLAYERS IN PRISON. 109 

and four children unprovided for. There is not a shadow of a 
cloud upon the purity of his character ; but he was hurried to his 
death indecently, and passed from his prison through Southwark 
to be hang-ed at St. Thomas a Watering. 

The players of Shakespeare's time get into debt and into prison. 
They give Henslowe and other money-lenders a great deal of 
trouble. George "Wither is in for " abuses stript and whipt." 
Massinger and Nat Field, — and if they are not got out the new play 
cannot go on. Ben Jonson anticipates his earnings, has to be paid 
piecemeal for plays yet to be written, and is now and then for debt 
or violence in prison. A few entries from Henslowe's Diary' are 
worth thought. "To discarge the areaste or Langleyes, 13^.4^^. 
To descarge Bird, alles (alias) Borne, out of the Kynge's Benche, 
3/. To lend unto harey chettell, to pay his charges in the Mar- 
shallsey, 303'. Lent unto Francis Henslow, to discharge himself 
out of the White Lion, 5/." Continual entries appear of moneys 
advanced to writers whose names stand well in English literature. 

There are some remarkably good views of the Marshalsea 
within and without, notably some in Manning and Bray, and one 
with a plan of the locality in Wilkinson's ' Londina.' This prison 
was situate exactly opposite May Pole Alley in the High Street, 
occupying the ground now known as Messrs. Gainsford's. 1746, 
the time of Roque's map, which so well gives the unchanged con- 
dition of these places,^ King Street was not, nor Union Street. 
King Street was Axe and Bottle Yard, and Union Street was the 
Greyhound Inn Yard. Between Mermaid Court and Axe and 
Bottle Yard was the Marshalsea, extending back a long way. In 
the evidence at the trials we find noted a most unsavoury neighbour 
to the prisoners, the sewer now covered, which passes opposite the 
Tennis Court toward the Thames. 

My collections as to Southwark Fair " tell of the " great booth, 



^ Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1845. Henslowe was veiy iUiterate, 
his spelling was very bad, even for the time. 

■• Very true and very picturesque maps of London and its environs, the best 
medium picture I know between the present and the far-off past. 

^ Formerly belonging to a wonderfully eccentric lover of old London, J. 
Fillingham. In one of the books I bought at his sale, now before me, is this 



no OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the lower end of Blue Maid Alley"; of Robin Hood and Little 
John, on the Bowling Green behind the Queen's Arms, next the 
Marshalsea Gate ; the two great booths on the Bowling Green 
behind the Marshalsea Prison. " We hear that at Lee's Booth, 
the lower end of Mermaid Court, behind the Marshalsea Gate, 
leading to the Bowling Green, they are getting ready to perform, 
during the time of the Southwark Fair, ' Bateman; or, the Unhappy 
Marriage,' to which will be added the 'Harlot's Progress.'" Did 
these booth-plays suggest anything to Hogarth, who was quite at 
home in Southwark Fair ? I think they did. No doubt Southwark 
Fair, like all similar rough outings of his, was full of suggestions 
for his wonderful pencil. I note further from Fillingham's scraps, 
— behind the Marshalsea, down Axe and Bottle Yard, the New 
Theatre on the Bowling Green ; ' A Changeling Girl,' to be seen 
at the Mermaid, near the King's Bench, in Southwark. The 
' Siege of Troy,' at the Queen's Arms, next the Marshalsea Gate. 
In 1 743 the fair became so limited that the customary contributions 
in the booths for the prisoners were withheld, they resented it, and 
threw stones over on to the Bowling Green, so that several were 
wounded and a child was killed. Such is the epitome and true 
story of the MARSHALSEA Prison, in Southwark. 

ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH. 
The triangular space situated at the north end of St. Margaret's 
Hill is best known as the site of the modern Town Hall of South- 
wark (Map, 22, 23). At the south end is St. George's Church 
(Map, 56). The way from London Bridge to St. Margaret's 
Church was called Long Southwark, and from St. Margaret's 
to St. George's Church, St. Margaret's Hill; altogether a most 
busy thoroughfare now and always. The church dedicated to St. 
Margaret was, until 1S40, the parish church, and the parish com- 
prised much of the Borough, together with the Clink and Paris 
Garden Liberties. From 1540 to 167 1 it was united with the 
small parish of St. Mary Magdalen Overy, and became St. 
Saviour's parish. In 167 1, the Paris Garden Liberty of St. 

rough inscription in his own handwriting, "Vita hominis sine literis, mors est: 
vita hominis cum stupiditate, damnalio est." One may judge of the man by that 
more than by a most elaborate memoir. 



ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH. Ill 

Saviour's parish was, by Act of Parliament, cut off from St. 
Saviour's and made a separate parish, and named Christchurch. 
In this small triangle was nearly to the time of our map, a 
parish church now ruined or adapted, a courthouse (Map, 22), a 
place of justice, a prison, a sort of town hall, perhaps to some 
extent the same building, having diverse uses, — and a market 
place (Map, 23). 

St. Margaret's must have been a church of note in its time. 
The parish extended westerly to the Thames, and included the 
stews of the bank, as well as the Manor of Paris Garden, The 
earliest notice I find is when the church was given to St. Mary 
Overies, between iioo and 1 135. In 1372 licence was given that 
the inhabitants of Southwark might build near to St. Margaret's a 
house for the Court of the Marshall of the King's household ; this 
would probably prefigure the cowrt-house of our map. 

In April, 1833, while digging for the purpose of forming a new 
sewer, the workmen found under the foundation of a wall, near 
the site of St. Margaret's Church, a slab of marble, which had 
evidently covered a grave in the old churchyard ; it was some 
4 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 5 in. in dimensions. Round the stone was an 
inscription, with the name of Aleyn Ferthing, a burgess of 
Southwark, who represented this borough in 1337, and again in 
1348. The stone rescued by Mr. George Corner is still, I believe, 
to be seen in the floor of the Lady Chapel of St. Saviour's. 

A gild fraternity or association, of the Assumption of our 
Blessed Lady, was by Letters 27th Henry VI. attached to this 
church, and was authorized to purchase and hold lands to the 
value of 20 marcks per annum. This church, like that of St. 
Mary Overies, had its Lady Chapel, as it also had its Seynt 
Thomas's Chapell. I find no record of the doings and rules of 
this especial gild, but the rules of a like ancient gild of the Blessed 
Mary, at Chesterfield, given in Toulmin's valuable monograph, 
will tell us of its ways. This of Chesterfield was begun on the 
day of the commemoration of the Circumcision of our Lord, in a.d. 
12 18. The brethren were to uphold the rights of the Church ; to 
guard the liberties within and without the town ; to do honour 
in the burial, and to provide masses for the souls, of the brethren ; 
to help the poor brother who had not come to his poverty through 



112 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

lust, g-luttony, diceplay, or other folly ; if a brother, through age 
or leprosy, should come to want, to provide him needful food, or 
find him a house of religion where he might stay during life ; 
if one brother wronged another or used foul or backbiting words, 
the brethren were to see to it ; any who made known the affairs 
of the gild should, on proof, be put out of the brotherhood as 
perjured, and the example held up to everlasting scorn, and so on. 
With such bodies attached to almost every church, violent wicked- 
ness, rudeness, and overbearing authority must have been some- 
what held in check, at a time when it was vital to hold then in 
check.' 

Among the papers still remaining with the authorities of St. 
Saviour's is a most shabby-looking but interesting relic — the 
parish records of St. Margaret's from 1444 to 1536, which have 
been printed and explained by a competent hand, J. P. Collier, in 
the British Magazine for 1847-8. 

These records, having myself tested them here and there, I 
shall draw upon freely. The church has its west door — its chyrch 
durre — the church style and the stulpes, or short posts at the style, 
just like any country church now ; its chyrch yerd walle, the pale 
in the chyrche yerd, and the locke to the pale. It had a stepyle, 
pewis, and glas wyndowes, which must have been of fine stained 
glass, as in 1447 a new window is put up at the expense of 10/. 
Very great artists in stained glass lived now, the palmy time of the 
art in Southwark, and they made windows with stories in orient 
colours, and with lead, at say a cost of 1 8;^. per foot. A window with 
a good story, in fine colours, could no doubt have been supplied "for 
10/. And let it be recollected that the money value at this time 
must be multiplied by eight or ten to make it represent the present 
value. Within the church were gorgeous properties — the high 
altar with its table, the sepulcre, and the chapels. Frequent 
notices of repairs occur — tylyng of the chyrche, sowdyng of the 
gutters of the chyrch. In this common highway filth accumulated, 
so they are frequently paying for a modicum of cleanliness. " For 
carying away of the church dung vij(^.— carying of dung be hynde 

« Sec 'English Gilds,' Early English Text Society, 1870, a veiy good full 
book ; and the Gentlemmis Magazine, 1835. 



THE CHURCHYARD OF ST. MARGARET'S. II3 

the chirche, vj lodis, ix^.' — ledyngf a wey of dunge vnder the chirche 
walle atte the streete side vnjd., peid for makyng- dene of the 
charnel, and carying of the erthe to bermondsey." The church- 
yard is in the public way, and is at length very much in the way 
in another sense. An Act is passed, 28 Henry VIIL, for enlarging 
St. Margaret's churchyard, in Southwark. The account of this is 
in many respects most interesting. The words of the recital of 
1534 are : " Be yt knowne by thys present Record, that in the yere 
of oure Lorde Gode M i v° xxx iv then be a consent of the inha- 
bitans of the Parysshe of saynt Margaretes in Southewerke lowenly 
by ther good wysdom bought and purcheased of one Thomas 
Onley Esquier and his Wyife a certain olde place with the ground 
be longing to the same, some tyme called the Lorde Ferrers place, 
sett and beying within the said parishe, the byers thereof, Thomas 
Bulley,' John Smyth, Wm Rutter, John Ketton, Raffe Copwood, 
John Garner, John Crosse,^ Rob' Petty, Wyllyam Jeffrason, 
William Chaundeller, Nicholas Stoxbrydge, John Sparrow,' wyth 
the ayde of all the hole body of the parisshe for the somme of 
one hundredhe and ten poundes sterlyng, wyche was gathered 
amonge the forsaid byers and the inabbytors of the same parysshe, 
with tene pound that the pryor of Saynt rnarioverais gave to the 
same purches. And all they wyllyng to make a Churche yerde, 
they havyng so small & skant Rome in the tyme of necessitie, that 
they ware fane to berry thre or fore ded bodis withione one 
Sepulker, one apone another. The wyche churche yerde was 
adjoint and halowed the xxv'" day of Septembare in the yere of 
oure Lorde God Mjcccccxxxvj. Fare ther more it ys to be 
knowen by this Recorde, that oure Soueraine Lorde Kyng Henry 
the eight, supreme hede in the Erthe vnder God, of the Churche 

' Yeoman of the Crown, one of the King's guard, and Member for Southwark, 
1511, 1521, 1536, as Thomas Bulle, Thomas Bullay, and Thomas Bulley, church- 
warden of St. Margaret's. At other times the family seems to have been known 
as Boll, BoUe, and Bulli. 

' Probably the owner of the "Crosses Bnihouse," north of the courthouse 
(Map, 20). 

^ These are given as specimens of names of the time, of churchwardens and 
others. I will only add, as one of them, a William Chaucer was, 22-23 Heniy VU., 
a churchwarden of St. Margaret's, and another, John Milton of a Milton family 
living in the parish, 

I 



114 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

of Englond, and the xxvij" yere of is most noble Reigne, set a 
Perliament holden at Westmynster with his Lordes spiritual and 
temporall and his Comonalte, at the wyche parliament then beyng 
one Thomas Bulley, yeoman of the Crone, and the kings moste 
honorable garde, then beyng Churchwardens the same tyme 
Thomas Bulky & Wylliam Chaundeller, and then the saide 
Thomas Bulley then beying burgess of the parliment gatt graun- 
tyde & gevyne by the saide parliament, by the Lordes spirituall 
& temporall and the Comon Hows in Mortmane for ever to the 
parisshe churche of Saynt margaretes in Southewarke, under the 
kynges letters patynd and ye brode seille whyche Remeyneth in a 
Chist withinne the same Churche of saynt Margeretes, for the saffe 
and sure kepyng of the same. And so the same Thomas Bulley 
beyng churchewarden for ij yeres full. 

" God save the kyng. 

W. TOMSON." 

A recital, i6 Elizabeth, further notes that the churchyard ot 
St. Margaret was situate in the middle of the common strete, the 
king's highway, and that there was not room for burial, " to the 
right perilous danger and pestiferous infection of the air, en- 
gendering grave mortality and infection " ; and that the wardens 
had been made a body corporate " in the Lawe," with a common 
seal, and that the land taken of Onley for the churchyard was 
about an acre ; and that there were " certeyne olde Howses in 
verye extreame Ruin and Decaye and daylye lykely to fall downe 
to the ground." The wardens and the people, at their " sad- 
discretions," were to cause a convenient churchyard to be made 
" where nowe gardeins be." Within this church the Cade insur- 
rection came to its ending. After the indecisive fight of the 5th 
July, 1450, on the day following, a conference was held here. 
The Chancellor Kempe Archbishop of York, and Waynflete 
Bishop of Winchester (Fastolf 's great friend), on the one side, and 
Cade and some of his people on the other. A charter of pardon " to 
the said John and all others who had so associated and congre- 
gated " 1 was shown. The people shortly after dispersed, and Cade 
was at length slain. I have said that Cade's was a respectable 

' Durrani Cooper, ' Paston Letters,' &c., and Green's 'History.' 



CHURCH TREASURES AND FURNITURE: 1485. Ilj 

and really creditable rebellion, that his people were in no sense a 
disorganized mob, but largely consisted of yeomen and shop- 
keepers ; in Southwark he had many strong friends, notably 
Poynings, Richard Dartmouth, Abbot of Battle ; John Danyel, 
Prior of Lewes ; and many "Holy water clerkes" beside. 
Probably on account of so many big people behind, no bloody 
retaliation followed on the death of the chief of this revolt. 

In 1S40, not long before our map was drawn, Maundeveld Collens 
and one other were examined in this church ; they were 
Anabaptists, and were on the 3rd of May burnt to death in the 
highway beyond Newington. An execution by slowly burning 
men to death in the public highway ! We have much reason to 
be thankful that we live now in 1878, especially those of us 
who, having a reforming tendency, wish to improve as we go. 
Not long before this. Sir D. Godson was drawn through South- 
wark to St. Thomas a Watering, and there executed for the 
King's supremacy; that is, for questioning it. But these are 
merely and only instances of physical cruelties practised then, and 
which, in a less revolting degree, came down to the end of the 
time of our George III. One sometimes becomes ashamed of 
one's species, asking with wonder, are we the people for whom 
the Sermon on the Mount was intended ? 

For various purposes and at different times lists of the rich 
possessions of the churches were made out. Here is one of St. 
Margaret's for 1485, the valuation by Wni. Perfett, W. Arnold, 
W. Webbe, W. Marshall, John Seynt John, John Middevale, 
Robert Bousan, and W. Charle. 

"Antypliene, Jenkyn Welles gave, psxx//. — Anoder grett antiphene, with sertyn 
Revlys (rules) in the ende, ps xxiij //. — Legend Santorum, ps x marke. — 
Anoder legend temporall, ps v marke, the weche Will"" Boddle and emot hys 
weyff gave. — ij presesynars of xxs. a, pese. — a benyte book, xiijj. iiijrf. — a mane- 
vell (manual), xxj. — another manuell, pries iijj. iiijr/. — grett masboke that Pers 
Avery gave, ps, x li. — Anoder that Rychard nevyll gave to oure ladey chapell, 
ps X marke. — ij grett graylys. — a lytyll grayle. — pystyll boke. — ij quayers of the 
storey of sen anne, ps m]s. — anoder that Wm. Povey gave. — anoder with dyvyrs 
salfe festa dyes ther. — a prykyd song boke of parchement that Syr John Docheman 
gave.— a lytyll boke called a pey, ps ijj.— Crosse of sylvyr and gylt with images of 
Mary & John.— Coope (cup) of Copyr for the sacrement.— Sensar of sylvyr with» 
a shyppe of sylvyr.— Paxbrede of sylvyr & gylt.- borall of sylvyr & gylt with a 
borall stone.— Crevettes of sylvyr.— a sonne of sylvyr & gylt for Corpus Xpi day.— 

I 2 



Il6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Dobul Crosse with rclykes. — a four square box, cont« a relyke of our ladey, of St. 
Annys, of St. John the Evangelyst, a stone of the Mount of Syon and oer relykes 
(no price).— a chalys, on fotc JHS (on foot Jesus). On patent JHS settyng on the 
rainbow. — a Chrybmatery. — a bason of laton for the paskall, ix bannerettes therto 
of talbottes and estryge fedyrs. — image of oure Lord, gylt for ester day.— other 
Jewells not in the old inventare." 

To our Lady, enumerating various properties of like kinds. 
Again,— 

" In die ste ^'aIenlyne xiij die Febmar Ao dni Mi iiijclyj. Item a remem- 
braunce that Pers Saveryn hath freely graunted and goven to god & to the chirche 
of Seynt Marget, A Sewte of vestementes, the whiche cost jc//.xvij/2. (117/.) — Wm. 
Povey .... x\x/i. — a chesebull of Blew felwett with a Red Crosse of Bavdekyn for 
Synt Nycol's ys day, piys xvjj. vn]d. — a tonakull of Rede with Ross of Gold and 
with a kocatryce, ps vjs. viij</. — Coshyns of Carpytt varke, the grovnde blew with 
bestes of yelow, prys vjj-. vu]tf. — A.D. 1456. Item ij Chesybyll, oon of blew 
eveluette, with the orfrey of bawliyn, And another of grene sylke with the orfrey 
of Rede, ' price \xs, Cochyns for weddynges, with Jhs. 

In the matter of accounts some care and formality were exer- 
cised. They were rendered up " afore all the parisshens of the 
parisshe." In 22 Edward IV. the amount handed over to the new 
churchwardens was v]h'. viijj., whereof was delyuered in bad golde, 
probably short weight or defaced, vj.r. viijrf. — and more bad golde, 
— and some kept back " for brede and ale and fyre." The money 
is mostly reckoned in gold and groats. On one occasion the out- 
going, wardens leave in the church box in gold 27/. lOs., in grotes 
4ys. 2d. — that is 200/. and more in present value. 

A few items as to the way the money came in — they are quaint, 
interesting, and throw light upon old customs and manners. The 
charge for burials in church was 6^. 8d. ; but weddings were far 
less costly, the charge specified being 2d. Gatherings, as, for 
instance, on the days of the saints and festivals : — Gaderyd in the 
Chyrche ; Ascencion ^s. yd. ; All Halowen 5.?. gd. ob. (halfpenny) ; 
Seynt Lucy Day 4^. id. ; St. Margretes 4s. ^d. ; Christemas day 

' i.e., Two chasubles; upper garments worn at mass, one of blue velvet, with 
cloth of gold of brocade, and one of green silk, with the gold cloth of red. 
These vestments were often wonderfully embroidered. It seemed, indeed, as if 
those who gave could not be enough profuse. The words and names, unusual as 
•most of them are, will generally explain themselves, or may be found in the best 
common dictionaries. The spelling of these two extracts is copied exactly, but it 
continually varies, 



OLD CUSTOMS AT ST. MARGARETS. ll"/ 

lOs. 4(/. ; upon xij day 3^. /^d. ; Candlemas 3^. iC>d. ; Ester day 
32.?. i)d. ob; and special gatherings upon special occasions. On 
dedication day, the anniversary of St. Margaret, a day of much 
festivity, 5^-. iid.; the Mynstrell was paid xvjJ. ; the singers " atte 
same tyme " 2^. ; for their dyner 2i. ; g-arlands 4^. ; enough money 
and fourpence to spare. 

An old rhymer deep in such lore ' tells us, — 

"The Dedication of the.Church is yerely had in minde, — 
From out the steeple hie is hangde a crosse and banner fayre, 
The pavement of the temple strowde with hearbes of pleasant ayre, 
The pulpets and the aulters all, that in the church are scene, 
And every pewe and piller great are deckt with boughes of greene, 
The tabernacles opned are, and images are drest 
But chiefly he that patron is doth shine above the rest. " 

In this way the people glorified the saint after whom the church 
was named. 

The Abbot of Hyde, a near neighbour whose inn was at the 
Tabard, gives 6s. 8fZ. on Seynt Volantyn day. Sometimes gifts in 
kind come in : " my Lorde Ponynges brasse to the value of vij/z'." 
— 7/. In 1458 is the entry ; gathered in the street, wood for St. 
Margaret's fire. Money comes in from Southwark Fair. The 
stondyng at the welle, 4a'. The well may be seen in the High 
Street (Map, 57). " Nicholas Maier and William Bulle late war- 
deyns bryng in affor the parysshens, of the money resseyved at 
our lady Fayre for Standyng uppon the Church Grownd in their 
tyme which was forgot 6^. 6rf." As an illustration, 1499, at 
Reading. " It. rec. at the fayer tore stonding in the church porch 
4^." There are also other methods of obtaining money for the 
church which would now seem especially strange to us. One 
entry, 30-34 Henry VI., " receaved in dawnsyng mony of the 
Maydens, 3^. M." — probably a morris dance and a collection after, 
much as I have often seen the sweeps dance in our streets on the 
1st of May, the brass ladle taken round afterwards for money; 
and as the dance was good or humorous, or as in our instance for 
a sacred purpose, no doubt the money came in freely. Another 
entry in 1450, " Hoke mony, Gaderyd by the men ^s. ; by the 
women 14^." In most if not all of these entries, the women 

^ In Brand, ' Pop. Antiq.,' ed. 1849, vol. ii. 



Il8 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

attracted or extracted the coin with much more success than the 
men. No doubt. Our own fancy fairs tell us how this is. This 
Hock custom was interesting, and no doubt very good fun beside. 
It will bear some explanation. It must have often led to something 
worse than fun between the men and the women, else why, in 
1406, 7 Henry IV., should it be forbidden by proclamation within 
the city and suburbs for any person to take hold or constrain 
another within house or without, Monday or Tuesday next called 
Hokkedayes. Not the less we see the church keeping it up in 
1456 ; but possibly they moderated the sport. In 1505, among the 
privy purse expenses of Henry VII., is this, "For the wyfis at 
Greenwich upon Hock monday y. 4^.," the parsimonious king 
permitting himself fun with the wyfTs at Greenwich to the amount 
of T,s. 4d. In I4S3, in the St. Margaret's accounts, still to be seen 
at St. Saviour's, are the words, " peid for hokis pynnes and corde, 
6d." One day the men would fix the pins on each side the public 
way, say from St. Margaret's to the Tabard, the cord fastened to 
the pins temporarily to stay wayfaring contributors. Women, 
churchwardens' wives or others, would have their day, and would 
pleasantly compel contributions for the church, for the repair of 
which the money was mostly used. Hoke Monday for the men, Hoke 
Tuesday for the women, with exceptions. On these days the men 
and women, alternately, with great merriment would, with ropes, 
obstruct the public roads, and, pulling passengers to them, would 
exact from them money. Similarly in the Lambeth book, " Item, of 
William Elyot and John Chamberlayne for Hoke money gydered 
in the pareys, 3^. gd. — and the gaderyng of the Churchwardens 
wyffes on Hoke Mondaye, 8s. id." In the accounts of Magdalen 
College, Oxford, an allowance appears, pro mulierilus hocantibtis, of 
some manors where the men did hoc the women on Monday, and 
the women the men on Tuesday.* 

Beside these gatherings and contributions, the church, like as 
other churches, had ever and anon rich presents, as the storey 
of Saint Anne that Wm. Povey gave, the pricked song book of 
parchment that Syr John Docheman gave, the great mass book 
that Pers Avery gave, worth 10/., and another that Richard Nevill 

•* Brand, 'Pop. Anliq.,' ed. 1853, vol. i., jd. 184, where the subject is fully 
treated. 



MYSTERIES OR SACRED PLAYS. II9 

gave, worth lO marks (a mark, 13^. 4d.), the Antiphone that Jenkyn 
Welles gave, worth 20?.," and the legend temporal, worth lO marks, 
which William Boddle and Emot his " weyff " gave. In so many 
tributary streams did money and money value come in. It will be 
interesting to see how it went out at St. Margaret's, Here are some 
of the outs : A play on St. Margarets day, "js. In 1444, a pley upon 
Seynt Lucy day and for a pley upon seynt Margrete day, 13^. 4^. 
Again in 144S, a pley upon the days of the two saints, 13^'. 8d. 
In 1456-7, payd to Harvy for his Chyldren upon Seynt Lucy day, 
20d. In 1449-50, Seynt Lucy day, to the Clerkes for a play 
6.f. 8d. It will be observed that professionals and clerkes assisted 
at plays in the churches. Something now by way of elucidation, 
not in any way meaning to play upon the words Seynt Lucy Day ; 
but the sound is so similar that I am bound to disown the levity. 

Of course, dramatic representations of sacred stories are not to 
be condemned. It was a time when something of the sort seemed 
to be required. Certainly no more fitting place for a decorous 
sacred play could be than the churches or the churchyards, when 
as yet playhouses, as such, had no existence. It was customary for 
the parish clerks of London to play the mysteries or sacred plays — 
that is, sacred stories, such as the Creation, the Life of our Lord, 
the Descent into Hell ; and, possibly, with a little less intolerance 
and bigotry, and a little more encouragement in the decorous 
playing ®f sacred stories, the worst vices of the playhouses of the 
time of Elizabeth and James might have been averted, or at least 
postponed. 

There was at St. Margaret's, as I have said, a gild of our Lady. 
Sometimes these gilds had charge of pageant or play ; so the gild 
of the Lord's Prayer at York had " a play setting forth the good- 
ness of the Lords prayer," in which play all manner of vices were 
held up to scorn, and the virtues to praise. This play met with so 
much favour that many said, " Would that this play could be kept 
up in this city, for the health of souls and for the comfort of 
citizens and neighbours " ; and henceforth the main charge of the 

* The value of this antiphone may be estimated by this, from the acco^mts at 
St. Margaret's : "Wages of a tiler a day and a half 8(f. His man 4^. Meat 
and drink for both Jd. A Carpenter 4d. A Dauber— z'.f., Plasterer — ^d., and 
a dinner to Sir Thomas Tyrrell at Westminster is. 6d." 



120 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

gild was to keep up the play. These plays were sometimes acted 
in dumb show, in processions along the streets. This most wonder- 
ful gild at York ought to be revived or imitated now ; that is, in 
improved meetings of city companies— indeed, of all companies, 
limited or unlimited. In their records they said, " because those 
who remain in their sins are unable to call God their father, 
therefore the brethren of the gild are, FIRST OF ALL, bound 
to shun company and businesses that are unworthy, and to keep 
themselves to good and worthy businesses."' There were pro- 
cessions on saints' days, and St. Margaret had hers. Twenty 
shillings appear in the accounts for a great procession upon St. 
Margaret's Day. A procession involved minstrells, flags, garlands, 
and torches. On these occasions most likely the morris dance of 
the maydens was displayed which brought in 3^. Sd. in 1451- The 
riches of the church were displayed along the open street ; banners 
of rich colours, silk embroidered, as of our Lady and her Son, of 
the Trinity, of the Deity in the triangular emblem ; these, with 
music and singing, swinging of censers, and waving of richly 
embroidered banners, such as were often displayed in the old 
Southwark highways, and in the presence of men of awe and 
influence, must have been exciting almost to ecstasy. But there 
are other costs to be noted: A pair of new organs, in 1446, 
5/. 6s. 8d. ; a cross of silver and gilt, 20/. ; the setting up a 
painting of St. George and St. Christofer, 3^. 4d. ; mending the 
welle, which, it should be observed, was not so very far from 
the overfull churchyard, 22s. ; in 1449, for those who had to watch 
the sepulchre,' coals, bread, and ale, 6d. At Christmas there are 
" charges for holm and ivy," as we have in some places now, and 
" garlands upon the saints' days." True, the saints' days came at 
length rather too often. Harison ' says, " Our holy and festival 
days are well reduced — not long since we had under the pope, 

" ' English Gilds,' p. 137. Sanger and his animals and much of modern trade 
are a long way off this. 

' " It was customaiy on Good Friday to erect a small building to represent the 
Holy Sepulchre. In this the Host A\as put, and a person was to watch it night 
and day. On the following morning the Host \\as taken out. Christ was risen." 
■ — ' Pop. Antiq.,' vol. i. 

* ' Description of England,' 1587. Sec edition of the New Shakspere Society, 
edited by Mr. Furnivall. 



WAKES, ALES, AND GANG DAYS. 121 

fourscore and fifteen called festivall and thirty Pro/esli beside the 
sundaies ; they were all brought unto seven and twenty ; and with 
them the superfluous numbers of idle wakes, g-uilds, fraternities, 
church ales, help ales, and soul ales called also dirge ales, with 
the heathenish rioting at bride ales, are well diminished and laid 
aside."' He notices also the gorgeous apparel and movements 
and bridlings of the clergy of the time as of ludicrous resemblance 
" to the peacocke that spreadeth his taile when he danseth before 
the henne." So much for the saints' days. 

On Gang Monday the bounds of the parish were " walked" or 
" beaten," — " beating the bounds." This custom involved expense, 
as, indeed, all customs do ; but it was full of quaintness, well to be 
remembered. The maids wore the "Gang Flower"^ in these 
processions. Sermons were preached at the crosses in the way, 
iind generally the occasion was improved as to the inviolable 
character of landmarks. Unwitting people in the way of the 
procession were liable to be bumped, that they might not forget 
the fact and the place. On one of these occasions the authorities 
of St. Saviour's are touched on behalf of their parish, so. May 23rd, 
16 14, it is ordered " there shall be a drinkinge on the p'ambulation 
day for the company, according to the ancient custom, yet sparinglye 
because the corporation is indebted." Workmen as well as vestry- 
men were then, as now, thirsty. Items occur, " workmen to drynk,' ' 
" for drynkyng " — this one apparently while they were " whyght 
lymyng the Chirche," in 1456. As the old gospeller said, " up- 
landysh processions and gangynges about and spendings in ryotyng 
and belychere " were far too common. 

These particulars must no doubt interest us, and at the same 
time they do, to some extent, make us acquainted with the old 
church at St. Margaret's Hill. 

But now, in 1539, comes the dissolution and the surrender of 
religious houses, and among the rest of the Priory of St. Mary 
Overy. Partly that St. Margaret's is in the way, partly that its 
churchyard is a nuisance and in the public highway from London 
to the South, partly that there is the Priory church too large 
for any one parish, to be disposed of ; an expensive fabric without its 

' See Brand's ' Popular Antiquities. ' 
' Flowers now in prime. 



122 



OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 



ancient revenues. St.Margaret's Is therefore disused, and the parish 
is united to another. This is done, 32 Hen. VIII., by an Act passed 
for uniting the parishes of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalen, 
to be henceforward called St. Saviour's, and the parishioners are to 
be incorporated in the name of the wardens of the parish of St. 
Saviour's. Ten years before our rude map was made, the church 
was St. Mary Overy, now it is St. Saviour's ; St. Margaret's 
Church disappears, and henceafter the site is used, as I have said, 
for other purposes. There are some apparently contradictory 
statements about this — that the church itself was used for the 
secular purposes,^ that a Town Hall was built in 1540,' that the 
church was pulled down and the site granted to John Pope in 
1546.* Probably the truth lies among them all, that there was 
some rebuilding, some use, and some adaptation. 



The illustration is a 
sketch of the spot as it 
appeared in 1600. The 
original from which it is 
copied is rare, probably 
unique. The house, the 
principal feature at the 
divergence of the roads, 
may probably be a Town 
Hall in the "marche" 
or Market Place. The 
High Street, Southwark, 
forms the centre of the 
foreground, and almost 
every house on either 
side seems to be pro- 
vided with a sign-board. 
Posts and rails appear 
in front of each door, no 
doubt (the roads were 




^ Stow, ed. 1842, p. 153. 

'' Manning and Bray, Surrey, iii., 

"• Ibid. 



552. 



THE COURT HOUSE, ST. MARGARET'S HILL. 1 23 

then narrow) to divide the footpath from the road. In the middle 
of the street are figures, i. A woman in a high-crowned hat, 
rufHe, and long-pointed waist, coming towards the country. 2. A 
man in hat and cloak. 3. A man on horseback. 4. A man and 
woman. 5. A covered van drawn by two horses. 6. A man 
going toward St. Mary Overie's Church.' 

Our plan has " theCourt House," which was therefore here in 1 542, 
and adjoining is the " marck-place" (Map, 22, 23). A subordinate 
court for the recovery of small debts was held here ; how early I do 
not know, but in 1604,^ on the proposal for a new Act, it was stated 
that such courts already existed in Southwark, and up to 1815 
they appear to have been always held at this Town Hall.' The 
Admiralty Court was here. A strange scene, as we should think 
now, but common enough in the sixteenth century, is suggested to 
me. On August 4th, 1559, some fourscore rovers (pirates), with 
their captain, Strangeways, were landed at the Bridge House 
Stairs, in Tooley Street, and marched off to the Admiralty prison, 
the Marshalsea. Some of them were arraigned at this Town 
Hall, and "cast to suffer"; new gallows were erected at low 
water at Wapping and at St. Thomas a Watering; and on 
October 4th the rovers were all to be hanged ; a respite came, 
however, and they fought for the Queen instead. A new ballade 
of worthy service of Maister Strangewise is extant. The rover 
captain was at length killed, the ballad says, in an attack on a 
French port, about 1563. The "Pyrates" were not always so 
lucky. An old black letter tract, 1609, shows " the Lives, Appre- 
hensions, Arraignments, and executions of the 19 late pyrates, 

° The title runs thus : "This description of the nioste Famous Citty London 
was performed in the yeare of Christe, 1600, And in the yeare of the Moste 
Wished And Happy Raigne of the Right Renowned Quene ELISABETH, The 
Fortye And Two. S'. Nicholas Mosely, Knight, Being Lorde Maior. And 
Roger Clarke And Humphrey Wylde, Sherifes of The Same. By the industry of 
Jhon Norden. Cum privil R Ma.'' I know of no other picture or plan of the old 
church or courts, but of the building erected after the fire of 1670 there is a very 
good one in Wilkinson. 

^ ' Cal. State Papers, ' Dom. 

' The Court of Requests, the Court of Conscience, the Court for the Recovery 
of Small Debts in Southwark — here first ; then, in 1815, at the Methodist Chapel, 
Crosby Row ; and now it is the County Court, in Swan Street. 



124 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

namely, the five Captains, Harris and others, and their companions, 
how they were indited on S\ Margrets Hill in Southwarke on 
the 22 of December last and executed the fryday following." 
A celebrated trial for treason took place here in 1 746 — that of the 
celebrated "Jemmy Dawson," the hero of Shenstone's sad ballad. 
These are but incidents of the cruel butchery always going 
on in those times. So, turning over my papers,* I see, 28th 
May, 1557, "The same morning burned beyond St. George's 
Parish, this side Newington, three men for heresy. i8th June, 
two more, at the same place, for heresy and other matters. 1561, 
lOth April, two men, mad people, were cruelly whipped ; one came 
out of Bedlavi, and said he was Christ ; one out of the Marshahey, who 
said he was Peter that followed Christ." The old diarist seeming 
almost to make a joke of it. And, indeed, what must one think 
of the people and the times when coming across such a contrast as 
this : — " Five men and two women in the morning to Smithfield to 
berne — they were all bornyd by nine at three posts " — and a jolly 
maygame in Fenchurch Street, with drums and guns and pikes, 
the morriss dance, and the Lord and Lady of the May — the 
tragedy and the farce enacted in the public streets in the good old 
times. There were moreover gorgeous processions in time of 
great sickness or distress, or on reception of some noted per- 
sonage ; and so the people were taught, overawed, and brutalized. 
But these are digressions, showing, however, the spirit of the times 
when St. Margaret's was passing away. 

Afterwards, when Pepys was Secretary to the Admiralty, he 
makes a visit here, as he must often have done, and records it 
after his manner. To St. Margaret's Hill, he says, " when the 
judge of the Admiralty came, whose commission of oyer and 
terminer was read, and the charge given by Dr. Exton — that 
being done and the jury called, they broke up— and to dinner to 
a tavern hard by." 

The Town Hall was, of course, a place for all kinds of public 
business. Here the Court of Sewers met, for the presentment of 
nuisances and local conditions requiring notification and remedy. 
One, in 1640, was held in St. Margaret's Hall, before Sir Thomas 

" Machyn, 'Diary.' 



THE END OF THE COMPTER, I25 

Crymes, Sir John Lenthall, Sir George Chute, Sir George Crymes, 
Sir Ewd. Bromfield, Daniel Featley, Doct. Theol.; Justices of the 
Quorum — names well known, most of them. A prominent feature 
are hogs — a multitude of them are presented. Broken and decayed 
wharfs {i.e., margins of open ditches, &c.), sinks, houses of office, 
and the like are presented. One case shows how polite and yet 
how firm the commissioners could be. " Also the said Jury say 
that our Sovereign Lord the Kings Majesty did not cause the 
Thames Wharf & Bank against his Highness pike Garden and 
house on the Bankside in the parish of St. Saviour's to be repaired 
and amended, being much ruinated and decayed wherfore he hath 
forfeited xb." His Majesty or his officers take no notice. It is 
again ordered that His Majesty would be pleased, &c., and if he 
did not, fine 4/. The word " done " follows in margin. 

At length came an effectual clearance in the shape of the 
great Southwark fire of 1676. The meale market, most of Comter 
Lane, of Fowle Lane, with the Compter itself, were destroy'd, 
some with gunpowder, some by fire. This comes out of it : the 
end of the prison here. " The City do not intend to rebuild, but 
will grant reasonable terms for other buildings but not for a 
prison."' " Other buildings, not a prison " were erected — the Town 
Hall, first in 1686, and again in 1793, of which first is a good plate 
in Wilkinson, and of the last, many but notably one by Ackermann. 
Here was in times almost to our own a bank, that of Sanderson, 
Harrison, Brenshley, Bloxham & Co., and again of Wilkinson, 
Pollhill, Bloxham, Pinhorn & Bulcock. The old buildings were 
all cleared away in 1833 for the bridge approaches ; and now, on 
nearly the exact site of the old church and its incongruous children, 
stands a branch of the London and County Bank. 

ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.' 
Before the year 1213, within the precincts of the priory of St. 
Mary Overy, by London Bridge, there was a building especially 
devoted to the use of the poor. Here certain brethren and sisters 

' ' Fire Decrees, Court of Judicature, 1677,' with the Town Cleric of London. 

' Generally, the authorities are Corner — various papers and a MS. of his — 
Manning and Eray's ' .Surrey,' 'Annals of Eermondsey,' Goulden's ' St. Thomas's 
Hospital,' Calendars, Rolls Series ; and MSS., ' St. Thomas's Hospital.' 



126 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

were maintained ; and Amicius, Archdeacon of Surrey, was their 
custos or superintendent. On the 12th of July, 1212, a great fire 
began in Southwark, and spread over London Bridge to the City. 
On this occasion more than 1,000 people were destroyed, many of 
them drowned in the Thames, being hemmed in between the fires 
at either end of the bridge. The building referred to, the priory 
church, and a great number of houses were burnt. The canons of 
St. Mary Overy soon erected a temporary building for the poor, at 
a small distance from the priory. 

About the same period, but after this foundation for the use of 
the poor within the precincts of St. Mary Overy, Richard, the 
Norman prior of Bermondsey, in 12 13, built, on ground adjoining 
the wall of his priory, an "almery" for the reception of converts 
and poor children. The Bishop of Winchester, Peter de Rupibus, 
disliking the foundation of the one on account of the straitness of 
the place and the scarcity of water — of pure water, I suppose, for 
there was plenty of another sort — and disliking the Bermondsey 
foundation as too limited in its operations, refounded both upon 
land belonging to Amicius, the custos at St. Mary Overy's, which 
had the advantages of good air and water. This hospital was for 
canons regular, and, it is said, was endowed by him with the then 
very munificent sum of 344/. per annum ; and it was dedicated to 
St. Thomas the Martyr. This was the first parent of the modern 
St. Thomas's Hospital. The circumstances are stated in an indul- 
gence for twenty days, granted by the bishop to those who should 
contribute to the expense of the new hospital, " the old hospital for 
maintenance of the poor, long since built, having been destroyed 
by fire and utterly reduced to ashes." 

The ground upon which this hospital was built had been occupied 
long before by quite other people. In the spring of 1840, on digging 
the foundations of new wings, evidence of a Roman dwelling was 
discovered — the tesselated flooring of a room, with walls and 
passages leading to other apartments, all built on piles ; and a 
little north, coins of Gratian, Claudius, Domitian, and Valens were 
found, together with a lamp and pottery ; and on the floor, showing 
the probable time of occupation, coins of the Constantino family.' 

' 'Arclincologia,' vol. xxix. p. 166, contains description and a plate. 



ST. THOMAS S HOSPITAL. 1 27 

But I will not proceed further with the Roman occupation, of which 
there were abundant instances in Southwark. 

The provisions of the new hospital, among; which was the proviso 
that no hospital was to be built on the old site, seem to have satisfied 
the canons of St. Mary Overy ; but a disagreement soon arose as 
to a burying-ground belonging to the brethren and sisters, the 
ecclesiastics of the neighbouring parishes considering it an in- 
fringement of their rights as to fees. The difficulty was got over 
by a payment to the complaining parishes, and an engagement 
that the fraternity would bury none but of their own precincts, or 
in exceptional cases.' The brethren and sisters had at their new 
gates the right of market for corn and other commodities which 
they had at their old gates. Many instances of this right, in the 
sixteenth century, after the forfeiture, may be seen in the hospital 
records of the time. In 1238 the Archdeacon of Surrey had a 
hall, chapel, stable, and residence for life within the precincts.* 
The hospital was held of the priory of Bermondsey, and so con- 
tinued until 1538, at which time it was valued at 266/. 17^. 6d.; 
and it was about that time surrendered to the King. 

The Bishops of Winchester claimed and often exercised the right 
of visitation. Disputes arose. In 1252 there was discord between 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester as to 
the advowson of St. Thomas's Hospital. In 1323 the Bishop ot 
Winchester held a visitation, and ordered strict rule of obedience, 
chastity, and poverty, and that the master should eat with the 
brethren.' In 1528 the rights of appointment and of visitation are 
with the Bishop of Winchester." Accordingly, the visitation and 
fees of the legate, in 1524, were respited at St. Thomas's Hospital 
and at St. Mary Overy's. There appears, however, to have been 
an authority from the King which might override the bishop's 
right. In 1528 the master of the hospital is old, blind, and feeble. 
The King, Henry VIII, , knows that Wolsey is legate and bishop, 

^ Some noted persons were — that is to say, much later on— buried here ; 
among the rest a Richard Chaucer, who had proinerty close at hand, by the stulpes 
at London Bridge, south. — Riley, 'Memorials,' xxxiv. 

■■ Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 615. 

" Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 616. 

" Brewer, Rolls Series, vol. iv. 



128 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

and may appoint a coadjutor. The King would like it for his own 
chaplain, Mr. Stanley. For reasons — that is to say, Stanley is a 
gentleman born — the King wants to be rid of him, and to have a 
more learned man in his place.' Edward VI. provides for the 
appointment of visitors, when needed ; and there was need. 
Corruption was often finding its way in. Many instances -are 
given ^ of governors having preference as to lands and tenements 
belonging to the hospital. Goods were often supplied by them ; 
and the facts becoming known, and being troublesome, orders 
appear in correction of the abuses in the reports of the meetings of 
governors. In 162 1 James I., by sign manual, appoints Andrewes, 
Bishop of Winchester, and others, " by right always reserved to 
appoint visitors." They had ample powers given them to inquire 
as to what had been done amiss, to thoroughly rectify it, to have 
the delinquents before them, and, if they thought proper, to remove 
them summarily. None in the hospital was exempt from this juris- 
diction. In 1663-4 the King interfered for the appointment of 
James Molins as surgeon. 

I have been permitted to see and copy some original letters to 
the officials, and to trace the autograph signatures. In 1579 Queen 
Elizabeth wills and commands the admission of an "almesman," to 
have room, with suite and allowance, in the hospital. In 1634 
Charles I. wills the appointment of Enoch Bostock as chirurgeon, 
and doubts not " of your Readiness to give us satisfaction." 1649, 
Oliver Cromwell is " glad itt falls in my way to accommodate both 
you & soe good a friend of mine as y' bearer hereof Mr. Barth 
Lavender." If they accede, " I shall be a Debtor to you of for 
y' condescention (I meane thanks)." He continues, "Trust me 
(Gentlemen) did nott y" abilities and worth of y= man intercede 
with me, I shoulde nott have moved you on his behalfe. Butt 
havinge a man thoroughly tried in y" service of the state & found 
able and faithfull in his profession, I coulde nott reasonably denie 
him my best assistance in soe faire a motion as to obtaine y° 
reversion of a Chrurgions place with you in y"^ Hospitall, wherein 
if you shal please to gratifie him & me, you neede not feare butt of 
our gratification herein will soone become y' owne, w"" notwith- 

' ]5rewcr, Rolls Series, vol. iv. p. 1806. 

' MS., ' St. Thomas's Hospital,' sixteenth and seventeenth centuvies. 



ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL. 1 29 

standinge I doe nott mention or intend as a consideration for y' 
favo'." — " Your very loving-e freind O. Cromwell." Another : 
" Gentlemen. The Bearer hereof Mr. Thomas Crutchley, Chirur- 
gion having- for a long time served in my owne Regim* (of whose 
abillity I have had sufficient Evidence). My desire is that you 
would looke upon him as a person deserving and be pleased" that he 
may be admitted into the next Chyrurgions Place that shall voyd 
in the said Hospitall for w"" you will very much oblige youre humble 
servant, O. Cromwell." 

To go back. At St. Thomas's, as in most religious houses, there 
was a sanctuary — a most blessed refuge against summary vengeance 
in lawless times. So, 1378, there is " a chapel within the sanctuary 
of St. Thomass in Southwark." 

The small parish of St. Thomas — the precincts, in fact, of the 
hospital — became known as "The Parish of the Hospital of St. 
Thomas in Southwark," and was quasi independent of external 
jurisdiction, often however disregarded, as already shown. The 
governors were, on occasion, fond of liberal feasting. It must, 
however, be admitted that this was a custom of the time. In 1680 
occurs the item 8/. \s. od. — meaning now a much larger sum — the 
cost of " dressing " a dinner for the governors. 1682, a dinner is 
ordered for the governors, after a general court, at the Amsterdam 
Coffee House, in Bartholomew Lane. A bill is before me for a 
treat of the same kind for opposite neighbours, the vestry of St. 
Saviour's; the amount 5/. iSs. od., equal to at least 30/. This 
without wine, as I find in another bill, " a quart of sacke, clarrat 
and white, and for naperie and sweet watter"; and the mem. at 
the end, "taken the money out of the bagg to pay this bill," 
meant the parish bag, no doubt. 

St. Thomas's, not as yet the hospital in a charitable form, but as 
a religious foundation, falls with the others at the Dissolution. In 
1538 it is surrendered to the King : according to one, by Richard 
Mabbot, clerk; according to another, by Thomas Thirleby. 
Rymer says, December 23rd, 1539, Richard Mabot is dead, and 

5 The original word, in the official hand, was "order." That is crossed out, 
and the softer word put in Cromwell's own hand. There are other letters to the 
same effect, signed Jo. Bradshawe and T. Fairfax, dated 1649. 

K 



130 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Thomas Thirleby is presented in his stead as master to the 
hospital of Thomas Bekket, in Southwark, commonly called 
" Bekkets Spyttell." At this time there were a master and 
brethren and three lay sisters. They made forty beds for poor 
infirm people, who also had victuals and firing-. The revenues 
were 266/. 17^. 6d. ; but by a MS. value in the first fruits office, 
347/. 3J. 4</., or, on what appears a second valuation, 309/. is. i \d. 
— apparenriy a deterioration in the face of a surrender. The 
differences in the names at the time of the surrender might be, as 
in many another instance, that Thirleby was appointed specially to 
facilitate the surrender, commonly enough done. 

Now comes the intervening state, in which the Hospital is neg- 
lected and becomes ruinous, as appears in the large sums spent in 
repairs, after possession by the City. I may note the changes in 
the name according to the whim of the times. The Hospital of St. 
Thomas, that is of Canterbury ; then, less respectfully, Bekkets 
Spyttell, then the Hospital of the Holy Trinity, speedily changed, 
out of compliment to the generous refounder, Edward VI., to the 
King's Hospital ; and finally, and as it is now, the Hospital of 
St. Thomas the Aposde. 

Not long before the surrender, the precincts of St. Thomas's 
Hospital in Southwark were hallowed by a most remarkable event. 
The first complete English Bible printed in England was printed 
here. In 1534 a convocation agreed to petition the King for a 
translation of the Scriptures into the English tong'ue. The King 
had promised a new version, but the work had lagged for five 
years in the hands of the bishops, until Coverdale, a friend of 
Cranmer's, brought out a revised copy of Tyndale's, and England 
soon became " a people of the Book, and that book the Bible," ^ 
and has so continued ever since. The first copies of the Bible in 
English were, however, printed abroad and imported, or if secretly 
printed here were no doubt dated as from abroad. These earlier 
Bibles are now exceedingly scarce, and it is not difficult to account for 
it. Time and natural decay have of course done something ; but 
there were many enemies who sought for the book and destroyed it. 
Tunstall, Bishop of London, among the rest, was known as a burner 

' Green, ' Histoiy of the English People.' 



THE EIBLE PRINTED IN SOUTHWARK. 131 

of such books, and it was no unusual circumstance to have them 
brought in baskets for the purpose. Coverdale, perhaps wisely, 
modified his translation, so as to be not too much at variance with 
the numerous influential people still attached to the old ways. 
Tyndale's uncompromising- words, "Repent ye therfore and 
tume that youre synnes may be done awaye," became in Cover- 
dale's, " Do penaunce now therfore and tume you, that youre 
sinnes maye be done awaye. "° The differences, of which these 
are the type, are evidences enough that Coverdale's translation 
was a compromise, by which the Bible was not only got into but 
kept in circulation, when otherwise it would, no doubt, have been 
sought out and for the time destroyed altogether, probably with its 
author. Within the precincts of St. Thomas's Hospital, one James 
Nycolson'' had the great honour to be the printer of this first native 
Bible. It was nothing unusual for printing work to be done in religious 
houses ; the printing press was the natural sequel to the Scrip- 
torium. So, Caxton had long before printed his " rude and symple 
Englysshe in thabbay of Westmestre." The times were not quite 
ripe for the uncompromising translations of Tyndale ; but Cover- 
dale modified his words, and, being- intimate with Cromwell, now 
in the ascendant, it was safe for him to approach that for which 
Tyndale was martyred. So Coverdale besought Cromwell's favour 
for Nycolson in the sale of his Bibles and New Testaments. It is 
indeed probable that Crumwell himself bore the cost of it.^ This 
same "James Nycolson, of Saint Thomas Hospitale, Southwarke," was 
a great artist in stained glass, and that in the best English time. The 
windows of King's College, Cambridge, are great works, immeasur- 
ably superior to any other work of the kind which I have seen in 
Cambridge, where choice specimens are so plentiful. Again andagain 
I feasted my eyes on the wonderful colours and as wonderful faces in 
those grand windows, so happily preserved through the times oi 
Puritan violence. The contracts, temp. Henry VIII., between King's 
College authorities and the glass painters, or "glasyers," as they 
are called, are curious and worthy of note, and they show that 

2 Tyndale, 1534 ; Coverdale, 1537. British Museuiti. 

' Nycolson or Nicholson indifferently. 

^ Andersen's 'Annals of the English Bible,' 

K 2 



133 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS TEOPLE. 

Southwark was a leading place for this art. The fourth indenture 
of this contract was for four large windows, at a charge of i6d. per 
foot. Francis Williamson, of St. Olyff, in Southwark, and others, 
were the " glasyers." The fifth indenture was for eighteen windows. 
Galyon Hoone, of St. Mary Magdalen next St. Mary Overey, and 
James Nicholson, of Seint Thomas Spytell or Hospitalle in South- 
werke, and two others, were the glasyers. They bound them- 
selves, and with sureties of five hundred marks, eight ounces of 
silver to the mark, "to glase and sett up eightene wyndowes, &c., with 
good clene sure and perfyte glasse and oryent colors and imagery 
of the story of the olde lawe and of the newe lawc.they to suerly 
bynde all the seid wyndowes with double bands of lead for defence 
of great wyndes and outrageous wetheringes," and they were to 
supply the contractors of the fourth indenture with good and true 
patterns for glass, called a vidimus. The glass they contracted to 
do at sixteen pence per foot, the lead at twopence ' ; so that 
Nicolson and his friends were the chief artists. It was in 1526 
that he was at work on the painting of the " newe and olde lawe," 
a fitting preliminary to his after occupation of putting forth the 
first English Bible printed among us. Nycolson must have been a 
bold man, or he was under powerful patronage. A year before 
he printed the Coverdale Bible in Southwark, he had printed, also 
in Southwark, Tyndale on " Justification by Faith only," — the same 
year that its author was burnt at Antwerp. This bold act cannot 
be quite accounted for, except the book had been put forth under 
the influence of Elizabeth's mother. Queen Anne. It is very pro- 
bable that this same Queen, during her too short-lived power, had 
to do with the printing of the Bible here referred to. As this impres- 
sion was probably at the cost of Cromwell, to whom much property 
forfeited by the religious houses in Southwark came," it is imagin- 
ing nothing to believe we see Cromwell, the great minister of 
Henry VIII., Miles Coverdale,' afterwards parson of St. Magnus, 

' Account of King's College Chapel, by Henry Milclen, Chapel Clerk, 1779. 

" In his will he leaves to his wife house, mill, and lands in St. Olave's, and to 
Adam Beeston, of St. Olave's, brewer, certain other property. Brewer, ' Letters 
and Papers,' 1529, No. 5772. 

' Leke, the brewer of St. Olave's, directed in his will, 1563, that Master Cover- 
dale, who was now rector of St. Magnus, should preach at St. Olave's, in Tooley 



THE SOUTHWARK COVERDALE BIBLE. 1 33 

London Bridge, and Nycolson met together in the printing place 
within St. Thomas's Hospital, to look over the sheets of the newly 
printed Bible ; and as the first impression was dedicated to Queen 
Anne Boleyn, concerning whom there are also Southwark tradi- 
tions, it will finish our picture if we see, as with more than common 
probability we might have seen, this for the time most powerful 
patroness of the movement within the precincts of St. Thomas's 
Hospital, with Cromwell, looking over the sheets of Nycolson's 
Coverdale. The title runs as follows : — " The byble, that is the 
holy scrypture of the old and new testamente, faythfully translated 
in Englysh, and newly oversene and correcte MDxxxvij. S Paul 
ij. Tessa, iij. Pray for us that the word of God may have free 
passage, and be gloryfyed. S Paul, Coloss. iij. Let the worde of 
Christ dwel in you plentiouslye in al wysdome, Josue i. — .Im- 
prynted in Southwarke, in saint Thomas hospitale, by James 
Nycolson. Sett forth with the Kynges moost gracious license. 
Dedicated by M. Coverdale to the King." Thus Tyndale's 
dying prayer, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes," was 
answered.^ Some questions I put to a high authority at the 
British Museum, as to this edition of the English Bible, were most 
courteously and fully answered. The letter says : " There is no 
doubt that the Southwark Nycolson's Coverdale was the first 
English Bible that was printed in England. I have no means of 
knowing the original price.' At present, Nycolson's is one of the 
rarest of Bibles, rarer even, I believe, than the Coverdale. It has 
been said that if a perfect Coverdale were now to turn up any- 
where in good condition it would be worth a thousand pounds, 
and this may probably enable you to form some idea of the value 
of one of the three or four perfect copies of Nycolson's Bible 
which exist, were it to occur for sale."^ Many other books were 

Street, on the day of his burial, and have forty shillings for his pains. ' Collect. 
Topog.,' vol. V. 

« Eadie. 

» Among the Records of St. John's Cambridge, is this—" For a new Bible in 
English, the last translation, 2^s. M." The date is 1571, which sum would pro- 
bably represent now, from the difference in the value of money, say about fifteen 
pounds. 

' I beg wai-mly to acknowledge Mr. Porter's kindness in sending to me so 
complete a letter. 



134 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

printed at this same press in " St. Thomas's hospitale." How 
early it was established I cannot say, but as Nycolson was living 
herein 1526, when he and others contracted for the windows of 
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, it is at least probable that 
Ames was right in surmising that Nycolson began to print in that 
year. Other more or less famous Southwark printing presses, as 
early at least as 1526, are known ; but of these and their produc- 
tions I hope to write on another occasion. 

At the dissolution of the religious houses, among which was 
Bekket's Spyttell, up to that time a religious foundation, the poorer 
people were rudely deprived of such ready relief as they had been 
accustomed to ; and the means of education were also to some con- 
siderable extent dislocated. The death of the King, if indeed he ever 
seriously intended to supply the void, inevitably placed obstacles in 
the way of the poor and ignorant, and facilities in the way of the 
rich. Indeed, what was anything to him, so that his passionate 
wishes were not thwarted ? His overbearing manner and rapid 
change of trusted servants did the rest, much as a third-rate 
player at chess may often disconcert a far superior one ; and this 
third-rate player had a violent will and power behind him. So 
the poor and ignorant suffered ; and such people as Sir Anthony 
Browne, Sir Thomas Pope, Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, and 
hosts of others made their rich harvest out of the spoils. But this 
King dying, his kindly, sickly son succeeds, and a new phase comes 
over St. Thomas's. Ridley preaches his noble sermon before the 
King, telling what he had seen, and that the state of the poor 
was daily becoming more deplorable. 

.The state of society had now become exceptionally bad, and 
want, idleness, and loathsome disease made themselves manifest in 
the streets. The monasteries and hospitals no longer received the 
poor and the sick ; and the sanctuaries ' were greatly restricted. 
Large numbers of people who obtained a living idly or viciously 
among the charities were now thrown upon the world ; and we 
may be sure that they made their grievances seen and heard. 
Not that we can now regret the sharp surgery which had been 
done. Then, as now, there were in the beginnings of institutions 

' Not abolished until the reign of James I. ; nor completely then, as the Acts 
p.issed .ifterwrirds for the abolition ofprclended privileged places show. 



RIDLEY'S SUCCESSFUL APPEAL TO THE KING. 1 35 

the green state, or striving after good worlc and deeds of real 
charity ; then the ripe state, when all goes well, and great good is 
done ; and, at last, the rotten state, when all tends to corruption 
and perversion. The bees go out, and the drones come in. Now 
we see in the official documents of the time how " idle ruffians and 
suspected persons and vagabonds had frequented the houses"; 
how " miserable people were lying in the streets, offending every 
clean person passing by the way with their filthy and nasty savour " ; 
how the poor wanted, and the children were without instruction. 
Ridley set this forth in his sermon before the King, moving him 
toward effectual remedy, and to a consultation with the Mayor and 
citizens of London on that behalf. In this and in other matters 
up and down these hundreds of years the City of London has 
shown the highest and most liberal spirit, and may stand excused 
if it has too often thought of the CITY, — of the exclusive rights and 
privileges of that small spot of ground. It is so to this day. No 
small number of people, I believe, of the best in this country would 
be sorry to see this spirit cramped or damaged by the mere cold 
utilitarianism so much advocated by hard "practical" people, or 
by people seeking popularity at the expense of others — so un- 
practical after all, when life is held under conditions often not so 
amenable to mathematical rule, or even to rule of right in its 
hardest sense, as to laws of consideration and kindness. Anyhow, 
mere selfishness must give way, and the good deeds of the past 
must be adapted to the present. Let, then, the striving to the 
greater good suitable to the times come from within, and the City 
may not need to fear its adversaries. Indeed, in justice to the 
citizens, they were the first movers ; and, whatever their motive, 
they did, in the mayoralty of Sir Richard Gresham, IS37-8, peti- 
tion King Henry for the governance and disposition of the " iij 
hospitalls or spytalls commonly called Seynt Maryes Spytall, Seynt 
Barthilmewes Spytall, and Seynt Thomas Spytall for the onely 
relyeff of poore sykke and nedy persones and for the punishment 
of sturdy beggers not wyllyng to labo"^ " (R. H.,' App. i). 

The effect of Ridley's appeal, and of the zealous and well- 
conducted efforts of the citizens, rasulted in the gift of the Grey 

' ' Memoranda relating to Royal Hospitals,' 1836, pp. 76, Appendix 2, &c. 



136 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Friars for " poor fatherless children," and of St. Thomas's Hospital 
for " poor, impotent and lame persons." On the 23rd November, 
1552, sick and poor people were taken into the hospital in South- 
wark to have meat, drink, and lodging of the alms of the city.^ 
Bridewell was appointed " for lazy idle ruffians, haunters of stews, 
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," and for others of the like sort; 
they were " to be apprehended wherever found and committed to 
the house of labour of Bridewell to be punished and made to get 
their living."^ 

The exordium of two letters patent of Edward VI. Is very 
touching. " Whereas we," he says, " pitying the miserable estate 
of the poor fatherless, decrepit, aged, sick, infirm, and impotent per- 
sons, and thoroughly considering too the honest pious endeavours of 
our most humble and obedient subjects, the Mayor and Commonalty 
and Citizens of our City of London, who by all ways and methods 
diligently study for the good provision of the poor and of every 
sort of them, and that children shall not lack good education and 
instruction, nor after be destitute of honest callings, nor the idle and 
lazy vagabonds be without honest and wholesome labour, which 
they shall be compelled to do " ; and then follow the particulars 
of the great bequests. Edward with his own hand wrote the sum 
" four thousand marks by the year," and then exclaimed, in the 
hearing of his council, " Lord, I yield Thee most hearty thanks that 
Thou hast given me life thus long, to finish this work to the glory 
of Thy name" ; after which he lived but ten days.* 

Now was the liberality of the City displayed. Gifts and money 
came in from all quarters. They bought the Hospital of the Holy 
Trinity in Southwark, and, beginning July, 1652, spent some 
i,oooZ. or 1,100/. upon its reparation, and with such good will that 
260 people or more were received in the November following. 
On the 6th October the City committee met and were constituted 
by royal permission governors of the hospitals, and almoners. 
The Hospital of the Holy Trinity was now named the King's 
Hospital, and ordered to receive wounded soldiers, blind, maimed, 

* Stow, 'Annals.' 

» 'Memoranda, Royal Hospitals,' app. p. 76. 

» Preface, ' Grey Friars' Chronicle. ' 



HOSPITAL GOVERNMENT, i6tH CENTURY. 1 37 

sick, and helpless objects, to the number of 260 persons, The 
26th April following- — that is, 1553 — the Court of Aldermen ap- 
pointed three aldermen and three commoners to survey and govern 
the hospital, which now and henceforth is to be known as the 
Hospital of St. Thomas the Apostle, as appointed in the letters 
patent of Edward VI.' 

The hospital is now established. Let us see how it is governed, 
and how it goes on. Among the covenants entered into with the 
King, the citizens engage to " comfort, ayde and relieve poor way- 
faring men and strangers, and to iind for such as have power and 
strength and be meet to labour, some kind of occupation as the 
same shall be most apt for," and it is provided for the idle, wicked 
and unwilling that sufficient coercion may be used. Indeed, the 
mayor and aldermen and their officers or governors of the poor in 
the hospitals may use such correction and order as may to them 
seem most convenient and profitable. This they were not slow to 
do. But for the powers so given, and the condition and customs of 
the times, we might indulge in a little surprise at the parental and 
despotic way in which they proceeded with their task. In the 
order of the hospital, the treasurer's charge is acknowledged to 
be of much pains and attendance. His duties, indeed, are very 
delicate, and seem in some cases to supersede the surgeon's. If the 
bodies, however, do bring before him certain kinds of malefactors, 
named in very plain words, he, with one almoner, may examine, 
commit to prison, reprove, banish, put to labour, punish, or, being 
" deseased," may admit into the hospital ; and he is duly encou- 
raged with this remark, " that his labour and pains shall be 
rewarded at the hands of Almighty God, whom in the office he 
chiefly serves. The apostle himself saying that godliness shall 
have his reward not only in this world but also in the world to 
come."^ 

In 1 56 1 the City people seem to have become slack in their 
contributions, so that the hospitals provided in London and South - 
wark were straitened. Accordingly, a large committee is formed 
to " move and sturre up " the people to a greater liberality. The 

' 'Memoranda, app. p. 73.' 
" IHdtf p. 94. 



138 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

names of the committee are given, some 126, representing every 
ward ; but, although Southwark is so greatly interested, none of 
the Bridge Ward Without is appointed, not even the alderman. 

Fortunate in the possession of an old MS. dating from the 24th 
October, 1569,10 June, 1574,1 am enabled to give some interesting 
as well as quaint illustrations of the inner life of the hospital and 
of the governors during the Elizabethan period. I use also a 
further contribution relating to the proceedings of the Court of 
governors from Sloane MS. 6277. And now, while I am upon the 
subject, let me say that there must probably be among the posses- 
sions of the hospital a large store of most valuable writings illus- 
trating bygone times which would give much pleasure and useful 
historical and other information, if the governing powers could be 
persuaded to publish them, or, at least, excerpts from them, much 
after the manner of the publications issued under the direction of 
the Master of the Rolls or by the Camden Society." 

I now proceed with some of these illustrations, taken from the 
records of ^e weekly meetings of governors. 

1562. "At this courte S' Willm Medeson, late curate of this 
pishe churche of S Thomas w'in the precincte of the hospitale is 
nowe discharged at mdsomer next to come." The prefix to the 
curate's name, Sir William,^ was in the common manner. Then 
follows, " It is dyred [directed] that S' Wyllm Downey, Clarke 
shalbe Curat .... and shall have for his yerly wage 
vii]h'. xii]s. ni]d., besides the iiij offering dayes, and other his 
advantage as Christeninge, Buryeinge, w' suche lyke, and a house, 
and the sayd S' Wyllm to enter at the feast of S' John Baptist 
next to come." 

1 562. Again, " yt is Agred uppon that A place shalbe appoynted 
to ponysh the sturdy and transegressors." 

1567. John Martyn, for misusing a poor " innocent " (imbecile) 
and for robbing gardens, is to be whipped at the Crosse," and 
have twenty-five stripes. Evidently the crosse was in frequent use. 
Whipping sturdy fellows is not a quiet business. The crosse gets 

» I cannot but acknowledge the kindness and courtesy I have pei-sonally ex- 
perienced at the hospital as to this matter. 
' Not, of course, the title of a knight. 
' The appropriate name of the whipping-post in the hospital yard, 



HOSPITAL RECORDS, i6TH CENTURY. 1 39 

pulled about ; it is soon out of repair, and in 1570 has to be new 
made. We shall see presently that it soon agfain needs repair. 

14th August, 1570. — Qualification of governors. — " M*. That 
the Steward shall repayre unto all the governors newly Elected at 
y' last Ele'cion, to receive of them 5/., to be lent for a time, and 
to be delivered by the said steward into the hands of Mr. Nicholas 
Woodroff, treasurer, and that the said Mr. Woodroff shall pay all 
such of the governors as was dismissed at the last election so much 
money as the before had lent unto the use of ihospitall." 

iSth October, 1S70. — " At this cowrtt it is Agred y' the steward 
shall Repayre unto all the governors newly Elected, for to receive 
from them to the use of the hospital the som of five pounds P On 
the appointment of a governor, a green staff was presented. The 
custom is an old one, and has come down to us. Sometimes a little 
gentle pressure was necessary — 1680, a staffe is to be carried to 
the Recorder, Sq. Treby, who is to be entreated to become a 
governor of the hospital ; and so of others. 1697, the beadles are 
ordered to carry staves to the several gentlemen named who are 
desired to be governors of St. Thomas's Hospital. Whether of 
this hospital or another, Machyn notes, " The Masturs of the 
hospitelle with gren stayffes " attending the funeral of a brother. 

Confirmation of Hospital .■^-20th October, 1572. — Mr. Edward 
Osborne brought into this court the Coppie of the words of the 
confirmation made in the last Parliament for the hospitals in 
London, made under the hand of Francis Spelman, clerk of the 
Parliament ; and on the 27th October the court orders Mr. Osborne 
to pay unto Mr. Francis Spelman the sum of vij/z. xj. v\d. for fees 
due for the Upper House of the last Parliament for the passing of 
the confirmation of hospitals in London. 

Revenues coming in from small matters. — 1569, for Margery 
Corbett for six months' relief, xxvjj. viij^. Put into the court box 
towards the relief of Katherine Gardener, xi. R* by the hands of 
Mr. Woodroffe of Joseph Elstracktt for the fine of his lease, ydi. 
R* of the Matron for work done by the poore women and chil- 
deryn, Sjj. \\]d. R'' of the hospyttular, as apperethe by his booke, 
iijVz'. iiijj. viijV. 1570, Hugh Hamerton will pay \6d. a week so 
long as M. R. remains in the hospital. 

There might even be contributions for one special patient 



140 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

as in Katherine Gardener's and Hamerton's cases. In 1570 
the parishioners of St. Andrew Undershaft will pay \2d. per week 
for Margaret Merriman, an impotent person. Others, John John- 
son, of Lambeth, servant of the "Reverentt ffather the bysshope of 
Canterbury," \2d. a week ; Alice Flower, M. a week for her diet, 
and to pay for all " poticary stuffe." AUys Black is received into 
the house for twelve weeks at %d. per week. Those who brought 
her are bound in the sum of 3/. 6^. Sd. to take her away at the end 
of the twelfth week. This is crossed out, and a significant touching 
entry put instead : " Dyscharged the 14 day of August," 1570, " y« 
child mortis " — the child of death. The collectors of S'. Ollyffes 
owe 17J. 4^. for the relief of K. C. The officials of St. George's, 
Southwark, are giving trouble, and will be dealt with if they do 
not take out some twelve persons named. T. W. will pay i^d. 
per week for his mother. Faith White. Twenty shillings " yerely 
for the space of six yeres to be paid for William Kyng who ys to 
be Dysmemburyd of one of his leaggs, and yf he may be Curyd 
w*in one yere and a halfe," &c. Elyzabethe Sharpe of the pyshe 
of S'. mychells in the quorne in the westchepe shalbe Recyved in 
to this hospitule w' codyssion that the sayd Elyzabethe do bryng 
in to the hospitull all soche goods & ympelmentts as apperythe in 
an Inventory .... unto the use of the poore of this hospitull. 
The assets come in many different ways, e.g., Money gathered at 
the death of Agnes Bechur, lOs. April, 1574, the box on the court 
table yields 30^. The box at the hospitall gate, Ss. Bequests are 
frequent. 9th October, 1570, Dame Elyzabethe Lyon, widow, 
20li. 20th November, 1570, John Carre, Ironmonger, 25ft'. 24th 
December, 1572, the Dean and Chapitre of Paules payd to Mr. Os- 
borne for a benevolence, lit. 6s. 8d. Old pewter is sold : 64lbs. yield, 
at 4d. the pound, 2 is. ^d. Raiment, probably made in the hospital, is 
sold to the poor. Curious rents are noted. A butcher for standing 
at the hospital gate pays at Candlemas 20s. ; another for a standing at 
King's Ward gate, i0.f. No tanner is to stand " within the cowrtt" 
without he will pay for a dozen of hide leather ^d.; for six dozen of 
cawlff skyns 4^/. These will serve as specimens of the greaf variety 
of most interesting items. Only occasionally do I give the original 
spelling. 
The inmates are disposed of in many ways. John Hood is sent 



HOSPITAL RECORDS, i6TH CENTURY. 141 

to the Locke (a hospital in Kent Street for certain diseases), to 
Wm. Boyse the master there. The pay for him weekly is zod. 
A child born at Dunstable is admitted, and put to nurse in Black- 
man Street, — the hospital will pay \2d. a week — evidently a very 
liberal sum, according to then value of money. Some patients are 
sent home. Warrants and a kind of licence to travel to distances 
are given. William Collyer, who hath been a night lodger in the 
spitall, is to have a passeporte to Rechmond, to last him not more 
than twenty days. Others named have passports for a less 
number of days, sufficient for their arrival at home. Some on 
recovery are put to service, and sometimes, to make all pleasant, a 
small gift is added. 

Apprenticeships are illustrated. 20th day of January, 1570, also 
at this cowrtt Willyam Teylle, s'vantt [servant] unto Robart hyll, 
smythe,^ of the pyshe of S'. Savyors, dothe promys and byndythe 
hym selffe unto his sayd mast' in cosideracion of the great chardge 
y' his sayd mast' hathe byn at towards his Relyffe w* in this 

hospituU to s've [serve] hym as a prentysse one hole yere 

And Wyllyam Bavyns, by order of this cowrtt putt to be a prentys 
unto John Sunwell, smythe, for 7 yeres, w* this c'ndyssion, y* 
where as the sayd Wm. Bavyns had a sore Legg & now ther 
of Cured, y* yf [that if] hitt happen the sayd Legg Do brek owtt 
Agayn, the governors Dothe promys unto the sayd John Sunwell 
y* he shalbe Curyd w' owtt Any chardg unto hym Agayne, but 
only of the chardg of this hospitull. 12th day February, iS70, at 
this Cowrtt John Mathew was Contentyd to Dd John Down'yng, his 
apprentys to hym bownd aft' the Statute of Wynchester * for xj 
yeres, unto his Unkle Rychard Rydar, grocer; & the sayd Rye 
Dd unto the sayd mathew viijV. & the sayd John Mathew Dothe 

' So that Smjrthe is not properly an affected rendering of Smith. ' 
* It is difficult to see what the Statute of Winchester had to do with this 
apprenticeship, unless indeed it implied his obligation, notwithstanding his 
apprenticeship, to serve if called upon; after this manner perhaps, "a muster 
of men to bear arms (temp. Edw. III.) made according to the Statute of Win- 
chester," Hist. MS. Com., App. 4th Report, p. 193. The statute was, in 
fact, to create by law, for watch and ward, constables, special and otherwise, of the 
man-at-arms kind, for internal security in a comparatively lawless time. See also 
note, p. 19. 



142 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

dyscharg-e the sayd John Downyng from his s'vis" for ever, &c. 
John + mathews mTc. 

The regulation of wages is noted. 2nd day of October, 1570, 
James Lynche was a suitor unto the governors for his freedom, in 
consideration of his long service unto this hospital. It was granted 
him by consent of the whole court that the governors would be 
suitors unto my Lord Mayor for him for the same, upon this con- 
sideration, that the said James Lynche shall serve with his two 
apprentysses, being the age of eighteen years and upward, for the 
first year, by the day, so often as they do work, 6d. a day, and for 
the second year yd. a day, and for the third year 2,d. by the day, 
and for the fourth year lod. by the day, and for his one pson he 
shall have I2d. by the day, & he to be bound to (serve) this house 
for the same wayge for ever. 17th of April, 15-70, it is agreed 
that the Hospyttulars wage shall be augmented after the rate of 
twenty marks by the year upon his good behaviour and according 
to the looking diligently to his charge. 

The food is to be of the best. 29th May, 1570, the almoner and 
the steward shall " bye no byffe but of the best w*out bones an in 
speciall w'owtt the marybon and none other to be bowght." 
Again, 3rd July, 1570, in consideration of the "bote tyme of the 
yere " the poor shall have allowed every one a day three pyntts of 
Bere for two months — a quart at dinner and a pint at supper — and 
at the end of the two months to have ther olde ordenary Alowance, 
wyche is j quarte. 24th December, 1572, the hospitaller is to have 
the keeping of the key of the coleseller, and to deliver by the hands 
of the porter colles to the pore. The governors are peacemakers. 
Accordingly, at the court held 2nd April, 1571, an agreement is 
made betwixt Henry Watts, steward, and James Lynche, carpenter, 
for all " manor controvarsyes betwene them from the begynning 
of the worlde unto this day." Mr. Alderman Woodroffe, Mr. 
Reynolds, Mr. Ware, and Mr. Brathewhatt formed the court ; and 
I should fancy they must have had some grim jokes over this 
business. They find work for the able. So the last day of August, 
IS 73, a mocion is made that a handemyll to grynd come may be 
provyded to sett the pore a worke to kepe them from ydelnes. 

' Ss = S. Dd, delivered ; s'vis, sen'ice, 



HOSPITAL PUNISHMENTS, i6tH CENTURY .143 

Very frequent entries occur to proyd for the use of the hospytull 
so moche fflaxe as may be convenient, that the poor may be set to 
work. The governors are also, as I have shown, empowered to 
punish in certain cases. How they proceeded will be seen ; but 
they must have their tools. Accordingly, 24th July, 1570, the 
steward is to cause " the crosse to be new made to thyntent that 
soche as ar ffownd malaffactors maybeponyshed." No doubt the 
cross — the name is significant — is made clearer by what Golding '^ 
says (p. 222), that a whipping-post and stocks were erected in the 
hospital ; and as to the stocks, he says they had not then, 1822, 
been many years removed. He says that probably lewd women 
and others, suffering from vice-diseases, when cured, and before 
being discharged, were privately whipped. A very significant case 
is brought before the court 4th September, 1570. Jone Thornton, 
one of the Systers, for a grave offence, contrarie to y" lawe of 
God, and according to the proffe of three wytnesses, is ordered to 
be ponished and have xij strypes well layd on. Mary Long is 
complained of for keeping company with George Clark. She is 
committed to the matron to use her discressyon as to the punish- 
ment, which seems probably to have been after the manner used 
with " petytes," i.e., little ones. Jane Carpenter, another of the 
Systers, has been, the matron complains, axte in church unto one 
Thomas Taylor, who had been " bornte in the hand." Felons 
were often burnt in the hand,' which sign would insure them a 
hard punishment, probably death, if caught again. The sister 
axte in church with this felon is summarily dysmyssed, and is 
no longer to Remayne. It must be recollected that among the 
charges to the nurses and keepers of the wards, in the order of 
the hospital, 1 557, is this, " Ye shall not resort, or suffer any man 
to resort to you, before ye have declared the same to the almoners, 
or matron of this howse, and have obtayned their favour and license 
to do so " ; and Jane Carpenter had not complied. In the revised 
orders of 1647 (Sloane MS. 2734, B. M.), "none of the poor shall 
talk susspitiously nor contract matrimony with each other within 

5 ' Historical Account of St. Thomas's Hospital,' 1822. 

' Concerning women of il life that follow the court — after thei have forsworne 
the court, being taken againe, thei shalbe marked in the fore-hed with an hole 
iron. — ' Edward II., Ordinances,' Chaucer' Society. 



144 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the house," Morals were carefully and, to us now, very quaintly 
cared for. " Officers nor poore shall sweare or take Gods name 
in vaine, nor revile nor miscall one another, nor pick nor steale 
meate drink apparel nor any other thing one from y' other, nor 
abuse themselves by inordinate drinking nor incontinent living, and 
when they goe to or rise from their beds or meales they crave 
Gods blessing and return due thanks to God." They are to be 
respectful in the burial of the dead.' All the sisters and poor 
who are able are to accompany corpses to burial in a decent 
Christianlike manner. The graves are to be six feet deep, six 
feet long, and not nearer the surface than two feet ; and the 
hospitaller, upon pain of lOs. fine, was to take no more than 
ii]s. iiij(/.' for the burying. 

Further as to morals. Every syster is to " make Dilygentt 
searche Amonge the poore" for cards or dice. 1573, Elizabeth 
Hewer, Agnes Jenynge, and other young sisters of this house 
went out from their charge " about the Towne " to the evil 
example of others. Yf they doe the like hereafter they will be 
dyscharged. " Dawson the Bedyll for his lewd and yvell behavy' 
at Bartylmewe Fayre had his staff taken from hym " ; but, on 
promys of amendment, it is restored. 1574, Edmund Hyll, who 
enjoys the office of helyng sore hedds, is discharged for lewd, but 
which appears to mean rather rude, behaviour. 

Notwithstanding this wholesome severity on the part of the 
governors, a slight suspicion grew up in connexion with some of 
their own dealings. They have great power to prefer, as it were 
arbitrarily, some over others in the granting of leases. Many 
entries appear, as if the applicants were waiting for dead men's 
shoes. Some of the entries showing preference for governors are 
obscure, and I should not note them but for the proof afforded by 
some after-proceedings. 1570, " the governors shall have y" 
prefarmentt of the same leasse yf," &c. This might, however, 
after all, be in the interests of the hospital. April, 1574, it is 
ordered that Mr. Raynolds, a governor then present, shall have 

' MS. Sloane, A.D. 1647. 

' It was the custom to bur)', with or without a coffin, in a sort of sack, tight to 
the body, tied above the head and below the feet. The charge at St. Saviour's, 
1613, was ^zd. with a coffin ; without, 20a', ' Broadsheets,' Soc, Antiq. 



HOSPITAL TENANTS. WARDS. 145 

the preferment of the garden at the expiration of the term ; but 
he must give for it the same as " a nother " reasonably will, 
and he must give it up if the governors want it. No doubt they 
did tamper a little; for at a meeting of governors 6th April, 1579, 
it was agreed by general consent not to grant leases in reversion 
until within a year or two at the most of the expiration of the old, 
and not to any governor nor to his use.'- 

In 162 1 Bishop Andrewes was appointed, with others, to visit 
and inquire, with summary power to remove even the highest. 

The following is a curious arrangement. John Bayley is a suter 
for the house of a widow Merley. He offers a fine of 25/. for a 
lease of twenty-one )'ears ; and, furder, to let the widow have a 
chamb'' in the same, and " fynd to her meate and Drynck During 
the said terme, if she lyve so long for it." Not pleasant for the 
widow in those violent times to stand in the way of complete 
possession, especially with the last seven words sounding- in her 
ears. The name reminds me of a widow Marlowe. 1573, a 
house where one Marlowe dwelleth. 1569, Elizabeth Marlowe 
was in the hospital ; but the name was not uncommon in South- 
wark. 

The names of the wards of the hospital are given. The King's 
Ward, select I suppose, as any falling (very) sick here are to be 
removed to other. The gate of the name is noted for stalls and 
places for dealing. For this privilege a toll was paid. The box 
for contributions is at this gate ; and it yields on the 22nd January, 
1570, — \2s. Jd. In 1569 is noted a house in the churchyard, being 
late parcel of the old swetward. In ij 70, this day twelve new 
blankets are cut out and delivered to the matron ; and eleven 
quyltts for the swetward to be made of canvas bowght of the 

Mr. Raynolds above referred to, at , but the price is not 

entered. This swetward may possibly have been prepared for 
the sweating sickness, so fatal about the time ; but I rather infer 
that it was " the foul ward." In 1647 this order appears, " y" 
patients of the sweatwards shall at noe time goe abroade, nor 
com into y' house to fetch any thing, nor com within y= chappele 



' Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 617. But I cannot find his reference, MS. 
Sloane, 



146 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PKOPLE. 

nor sitt uppon y° seats in y" court yard except in prayer time." 
South wark, as I may hereafter show, was always among the first 
and worst afflicted with dreadful epidemics, and for very obvious 
reasons. The history of the old, as of the modern, borough 
teaches many a sanitary lesson. A writer in 1528 saw the people 
" as flies " rushing from the streets and shops into their houses to 
take "the sweat" whenever they felt ill. Thousands, he says, 
have it from fear who need not else sweat, especially if they 
observed g-ood diet. The King himself made his will and took 
the sacraments, alarmed but not iW — a touch of fear grounded 
upon conscience, let us hope. People and King might well be 
alarmed. It destroyed people by the thousand, and was usually 
a short affair, two or three hours sufficing to "dispatch" the 
victim. There was no respect of persons. The two sons, both 
dukes, the only sons of that admirable lady so much connected 
with Southwark, the Duchess Katherine Brandon, died of it the 
same day, in 1551- 

And now to pass once more from the sickness and the people 
to the charitable house, now Ridley's rather than Becket's, " the 
house of the poor in Southwark." I have nodced a ward or two. 
Let me note further the ward which received people for the night 
— the nyght lodgers' ward, with its special sister; and further, 
places were appointed within the hospital for midwifery purposes. 

The hospital and its precincts — in other words, the parish of the 
Hospital of St. Thomas — was under the control of the governors ; 
it is true, often interrupted, as policy or cupidity might direct. Like 
Montague Close, near at hand, it is like named. In 1573 the 
gardens within the close are to be surveyed, " they are of so 
small rent " — a few shillings only. What would our forefathers 
say as to this contrasted with the value of land now near London 
Bridge '? " The three Cuppes " within the close gate needs repair, 
and is to have " soche as ys nedfull ther to be done." These 
valuable manuscripts contain much of the usages of the time, of 
wages, and of prices ; of the parsonage and its tithes, the claims, 
cravings, and quarrels connected with it; together with, here 

2 Those who would know more of this can see it in Brewer's admirable intro- 
duction, the fourth volume of his Rolls Series, tenp. Henry VIII. 



ST. THOMAS S HOSPITAL, 17TH CENTURY. 147 

and elsewhere, the appointing- or dismissing- ministers of different 
persuasions, according- to the belief dominant at the time. Not to 
be tedious, I defer these ; but they are all wonderful as studies of 
ever- varying human nature, so great at the time, so little after. 
- The number of patients or poor admitted in 1552, at the opening, 
was 200; in 1554,210. Something more complete appears in 1629. 
A return by order of Council shows: Income, 1,839/. i6j. ^d. 
Rents of houses in London, 504?. 13^. 4</. ; in Southwark, 514/.; 
in the country, 720/. '^s. lOd. ; and other items. Patients under 
care, 300 and odd. The officers of the hospital and their annual 
wages : — Thirteen sisters, each 40J. ; a doctor of physic, 30/. ; an 
apothecary, 60/. ; three surgeons, 36/. apiece ; " more to one of 
them for cutting the poor of the stones, 15/." ; an herb-woman, for 
physical herbs, 4/. ; total, 365/. Expense for diet of the patients 
and residents, &c., 1,819/. i6s. 2d. Total payments for the past 
year, 2,761/. "js. lod. Legacies and casual receipts were made to 
square the account ; otherwise the outgoings were much more than 
the income.' In 1647 (Sloane MS. 2734) it is ordered that the 
poor to be kept in the house be, from Michaelmas to Lady Day, 
200 ; and from Lady Day to Michaelmas, 150. As both these 
returns are official, the benefit done seems to have gone back a 
little. In the year 1667 1,241 persons were relieved, 144 were 
buried, and 255 remained under care. In 1690 the patients are 
reckoned as 250. We cannot, by way of accurate comparison, 
compare 1876 with 1690 ; but it may be noted that in 1861 St. 
Thomas's Hospital had 493 beds for in-patients, and relieved 
nearly 42,000 out-patients in the year ; and that in another ten 
years or so the income may probably be some 50,000/. or 60,000/. 
a year, against the old 2,000/. multiplied by eight or ten to bring 
it up to the present standard of value. 

It would be interesting to know how soon this hospital obtained 
the character of a speciality for lithotomy. In 1569 to 1574 there is 
not the remotest hint of it. This notice of 1629, an extra pay- 
ment " for cutting the poor for the stones," is spoken of as a 
somewhat old arrangement. Seymour's (i.e., Motley's) ' Survey,' 
1734, vol. i. p. 182, tells of " a cutting ward with seven beds, and 

' ' Rolls Papers,' Dom. 

h 2 



148 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the cutting room close by, where they cut for the stone." In my 
own time both the Borough hospitals had a great reputation this 
way. Now, in 1878, the spread of sound surgical knowledge is 
such that one place is probably as good as another. 

The staff and sick business of the hospital. — The advertisements 
before the opening of the educational schools, in October, 1877, 
show us at St. Thomas's a splendid array of the best professional 
talent in the world — some thirty physicians and surgeons and 
other skilled professional men. In 1557, in the order of the 
hospital, the chief officers are noted as the clerke, hospitaller, and 
matrone. The one surgeon comes in this order : The clerk and 
matron first, then others, then the Cooke, Butler, Porter, Sho- 
maker, Chirurgian, Barbour, and Bodies. The physician and 
surgeon are without the solemn charge given formally to all the 
others (' Mem. Royal Hosp.'). Indeed, the house was at first an 
infirmary, a poor-house, a work-house, a casual ward, rather than 
a hospital pure and simple. Possibly, so far, the doctors had no 
official character here. In 1566, but this refers chiefly to Bar- 
tholomew's — the illustration is sound all the same — the mayor and 
commonalty are to find eight beadles, competent to deal with 
valiant and sturdy vagabonds, each to have 3/. 6s. 8J. a year for 
wages. They are to find also one person sufficiently learned in 
the science of physic, and one other person having sufficient know- 
ledge in surgery, to be always attendant upon the sick and poor 
('Mem. R. H.'). In this year it also appears that the Court of 
Aldermen ordered the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital to 
provide a physician to attend to the poor therein. One skilful 
surgeon to heal the sick and infirm had already, in the charter 
Edward VI., iSSi, been ordered to be appointed. At first the 
surgeon had little if any status here. In the list of officers, 15S7, 
he comes in, as already shown, between the shoemaker and the 
barber. In 1647 he is not to prescribe medicine. That is the 
duty of the "doctor" only. 1574, he has to compete with one 
officially appointed to cure " sore heds." 1677, he competes with 
a "bonesetter,'' who is to have out of the house those cases which 
are discharged as incurable by the surgeons ; who " if he cures 
them, ho shall be paid." 1632, the apothecary is side by side with 
a herb-woman, whose payment is 4/. a year for " physical herbs." 



THE HOSPITAL DOCTORS. I49 

There are, however, high-class men among the surgeons. Thomas 
Wharton, Fairfax's doctor, stuck to his post here in the Plague 
time, when others fled. It is said of Edward Rice how he also 
exposed himself in the dreadful Plag'ue, when all the chirurgions 
that were in ofHce deserted the service, in regard to the hazardous- 
ness thereof. Accordingly, at the first vacancy he is appointed, 
this entry appearing at the same time, " Henceforward to be three 
only, according to the ancient usage." I have already referred to 
the appointment here of surgeons for whom Charles, Cromwell, 
Bradshaw, and Fairfax were willing to vouch. But to the " Doctor." 
I find, 30th April, 1571, that Mr. Bull,the " phesyssion,' ' is apparently 
an old and recognized officer ; and he gives orders as to " the 
good and lawfull stuff which the poticary may use." The 25th 
August Mr. Bull is a suter for a house in the close ; but as no 
house is to be had, he is to have 53^. 41!. per year until he can 
have a house of the hospital. In 1574 is this entry : At a meeting 

of governors at this court, Mr. Doctor was freely elected and 

chosen to be physician to this house, in the place and room of our 
Mr. Bull, deceased. This grant is to have continuance during so 
long time as he shall serve the place .... to the well liking of 
the governors of this house, and not otherwise. And he, serving- 
the same in manner aforesaid, is to receive such like fee as Mr. 
Bull had before, which is xx'''= mke by the year. The very next entry, 
not however connected with this subject, but indicating how 
human affairs usually go, hints that the proceedings of the 
governors might possibly become too public. It is therefore 
ordered that " if the clerke of the house make any copie of any 
act of this court without leave, he shall lose his office." 

It is wonderful how the court of this institution had contrived, 
even to the other day, to hedge itself round with a sort of dignity 
which could only arise in so limited a case as this out of a kind 
of secrecy, exclusiveness, or assumption of something more than 
the management of a charity could warrant. It is well for the 
public that the hedge is low, and that almost any one who is tall 
enough can look over it. 

A few words as to the apothecary's office may not be uninterest- 
ing. At a court in 1571, Thomas Colfe, poticary, was to have 
quarterly 7/., he promising and binding himself to deliver to the 



ISO OLD SOtJTttWARk AND ITS PEOPLE. 

poor harboured within the hospital (there were evidently no out- 
patients then) good and lawful stuff, so as quite to satisfy Mr. 
Bull, the physician. I observe several entries showing that for 
this " stuff " a charge was often made to the patients or to their 
sureties. Not to note too many items, in 1574, John Bryggs is 
admitted "apetecary to serve such apetecary stuff as shallbe 
thought mete by Mr. Bull." He is to serve so long as his stuff is 
good, and is to have, as Thomas Colfe had, 7/. quarterly.'' The 
same year is an entry touching the surgeons, " who shall, in con- 
sideration of the great number of poor that daily do repair and 
remain in this hospital, and also of the excessive prices of all 
things, and upon consideration that they shall be diligent in the 
curing of the poor, be allowed 20/. a piece for their Salary and 
wage, from the feast of our Lady now last past." This seems to 
imply that poor people did come and go daily for advice and medi- 
cines ; in other words, there were out-patients. At this time 
there were only 107 patients. In 1577 another apothecary 
is appointed ; the salary is advanced to gl. in consideration of 
his making a diet drink, he finding all the materials, except coals 
and a kettle to make it in. This diet drink, for certain or uncer- 
tain diseases, seems to have been in one sense a success, for in 
1662 the payment for this one item is 20/. No doubt it brought a 
lot of roisterers and pretenders to the hospital, and so the 
governors had to drop the diet drink altogether. The four great 
charities — Bartholomew's, Bridewell, Christ's, and St. Thomas's, 
W(jre at first almost exclusively in the hands of the mayor and 
citizens of London, and chiefs of the City were appointed over 
them all — chiefs who were often very distinguished and successful 
men, great in their way and in their day. Temp. Eliz.° is a list of 
" sundry the wisest and best Merchaunts in London to deale in the 
weightiest causes of the Citie," and among these are the names of 
most of the active Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital of the time 
— the Offleys, Wheler, Saltonstall, Woodroffe, among others ; 
for example, Richard Saltonstall, Hugh Offley, Sir George Bond, 
and others, are to judge summarily and in admiralty cases de piano, 

■• The salaiy or alIo\vance to the apothecary . See a \'ahiable collection of par- 
ticulars as to this hospital, 2 vols., Sloane MS. 272S. 
» Lailsdownc MS, 683. 



THE FIRST GOVERNORS OF THE HOSPITAL. 151 

that is, upon the face of it.^ In the MS./ 1569-1574, weekly 
meetings of governors are shown. Aldermen and past and present 
mayors attend, who, with others, form " the Cowrtt." A few may 
be noted. SIR WILLIAM CHESTER, the first treasurer; he 
was sheriff 1554-5, apparently, as we say, a taking man. He, 
with his colleague Woodruffe, was officially present at the burning 
of the martyrs Rogers and Bradford. It is recorded of him that 
he was kind and merciful on that dreadful occasion, in favourable 
contrast to Woodroffe, who was brutal. Sir William was knighted 
as alderman in 1556-7, by Queen Mary. He was Lord Mayor in 
1560-1. In 1564 he is a merchant adventurer, looking out to pre- 
vent others from trading to the same parts where he trades. 
He is concerned with four ships going to Africa ; is one of 
several lending to the Crown 30,000/. at ten per cent. ; has been 
trading to Barbary a long time, and is now concerned in a new 
voyage of discovery thither. He lived in Lombard Street, and 
was buried, with his wives, at the church of St. Edmund the King. 
Rogers, the protomartyr of the Marian cruelties, delivered to the 
Sherriff Woodroffe for the burning, was urged to recant. " That 
which I have preached I will seal with my blood," said Rogers. 
Then said Woodroffe, " Thou arc an heretic." " That," said 
Rogers, "will be seen at the day of judgment." " Well, then," 
said the sheriff, " I will never pray for thee." The answer was, 
" But I will pray for thee." And so they proceeded to the end.' 
NICHOLAS WOODROFFE attends as governor until 24th March, 
1571. Then he appears as Mr. Alderman Woodroffe; he is 
knighted, becomes Sir Nicholas and Lord Mayor in 1579. His 
father David was " Ihe cruel sheriff P A whole page of pedigree is 
given of this family in Manning and Bray's ' Surrey.' ROBERT 
OFFLEY was one of a family of noteworthy people. The Lord 
Mayor, Thomas Offley, in 1566 went with Sheriff Chester in a barge 
to Greenwich, where the Queen's palace was." The Queen 
knighted them both. Offley was what was called a Merchant of the 

^ Cal. Dom., Rolls Series. 
' P.M. 

° Andersen's 'Annals of the Bible,' vol. ii. p. 283. 

» A beautiful woodcut of this palace io in the ' Illustrations of Shakespeare,' Ijy 
T. O. Halliwell. 



152 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Staple, and was often consulted by the government of the day as 
to mercantile matters. He was a sort of antitype of Thomas Guy, 
and was subject to some ridicule as a reputed miser. It was said 

of him, — 

" Oflley three dishes had of daily rost — • 
An egg, an api^le, and the third a tost.'' 

But Fuller says that feeding himself on the plain and wholesome 
was that he might feed others by his bounty, and the jeer, well under- 
stood, was praise. He bequeathed half his estates to the use of the 
poor. In the after time of Elizabeth, when men of mark of either 
religious extreme were in danger, Sir Thomas was denounced as a 
Papist; but, so far as I can learn, he died peaceably and honoured 
in 1580. Like to Thomas Guy in after time, the family feeling 
seems to have been thrift, and in both cases, probably, with some 
elasticity as to the means. So Robert Offley, at a cowrtt meeting, 
competes with an outsider, and bids most for a lease of hospital 
property. The entry runs thus, — " Mr. Burde offerithe for a leasse 
20" or els to Doble the Rentt. also Mr. Ofifley ofTerythe for the 
same leasse 50"." A governor, with the pleasant name of SIR 
ALEXANDER AVENON, appears at the court in 1571, always 
taking precedence of the rest. He had been lately lord mayor, — 
i.e., in 1569-70. A man of some nerve probably, the chronicler 
thinking it right specially to record that he Avas the third husband 
of his wife, the Lady Alice. The most noted of them all was the 
gentleman who appears in the weekly court, held 23rd September, 
1571, as MR. EDWARD OSBORNE, evidentlya man of business, 
and one to be relied on. loth November following he is " choisen 
into the office of Treasurer." In 1572 is the following entry, — 
" Item at this courte Mr. Edward Osborne brought into this courte 
the Coppie of the words of the confyrmation made in the last par- 
lyament for thespitalls in London, made under thand of fTrancis 
Speylman Clark of the plyament "' — for which 7/. lOs. 6d. is to 
be paid unto Francis Spelman. 13th July, 1573, he first appears 
at the court, and takes pi-ecedence as Alderman Osborne. 
No doubt such a man had plenty to do. In October, 1573, he gives 
place as treasurer to Mr. Wheler. In 1575 he is sheriff; in 1583 
he is lord mayor, and in 1584 is knighted by Queen Elizabeth; 
in 1585-6 he is Member of Parliament for the City. A very 



SIR EDWARD OSBORNE. 1 53 

romantic but substantially true story is attached to the name of 
Osborne. As an apprentice he lived with his master, afterwards 
the Lord Mayor, Sir William Hewitt, on London Bridge. The 
bridge was then covered with houses and places of business, with 
a very limited carriage way under and between. In some of the 
old plans of London Bridge, notably John Norden's, in 1624, these 
curious old dwellings are seen with windows close down to the 
arches over the water, some of them showing rope and bucket, 
dipping up water for use. It appears that the infant child of 
Osborne's master was accidentally dropped by the nurse out of a 
window into the river. Osbc«-ne the apprentice, seeing this, leaped 
after her and saved her. The service was never forgotten, for 
when the child was grown and come to woman's estate, and 
sought in marriage by the Earl of Shrewsbury and others, the 
Knight, now very rich, rejected all in favour of his old apprentice : 
" He had saved her, he should enjoy her," — and so it came about. 
The story is still preserved in a painting in the possession of the 
Leeds family, Sir Edward Osborne being their ancestor and 
founder. In 1581,^ Mr. Alderman Osborne is an owner of ships, 
and with others desires to be incorporated as Merchants of the 
Levant. This year he is Sir Edward. In 1583 he bestirs himself 
against carriers departing on the Sabbath, and he notes how beg- 
gars are coming from Ireland ; and that " they shall be sent back 
and no more permitted to come." iS84.' — He is prominent in his 
doings as to the rights of the City over South wark. 1585. — He is 
active in the Turkey Company. 1590. — He desires to open trade 
with Turkey, and asks for a corporation for the Turkey trade. 
All this and more at hand shows what manner of man this Trea- 
surer of St. Thomas's Hospital really was. Many of these mer- 
chants had leanings to reform in religion. It is in evidence that 
they strenuously tried to save Tyndale ; but the capture had been 
effected secretly and by treachery, and they were too late. 
Further, Rogers, the Matthews of Matthews's Bible, was chaplain 
to the Merchant Adventurers. Some further thought leads to the 
doubt whether it was safe for any, while the tide was running 
strongly, to attempt to stem it. If the Merchant Adventurers had 
the way as they had the will to save Rogers, who was condemned 
' Calendars, Domestic. 



1 54 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

and burnt in their midst as it were, it is likely they would have 
succeeded. So many people of the highest position came to violent 
ends in connexion with religion that it is quite unlikely the great 
merchants could have saved their chaplains even had they zealously 
tried. Many others of these men whose names appear as governors 
of St. Thomas's Hospital from 1569 to 1574 are men of mark ; but 
this will suffice. They at least attained, most of them, the position 
of aldermen, sheriffs, and mayors of the City. 

The names of the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital about 
this time imply more than appears on the surface. So many of 
them were what we should call the merchant princes of their day, 
selected from among the best of the City for the government of 
the various hospitals. They tell us of the beginnings and growing 
up of English trade. An OfHey is Mayor of the Staple, one of a 
court that has legal power to decide trade disputes and offences, 
and to facilitate dealings. The Offieys are great, also, among the 
merchant adventurers. 1608, one, with others, offers to farm the 
tribute of the tenth fish caught by strangers in the King's seas. 
Allyn is a merchant adventurer. So is Sir Thomas Chester ; and 
in 1564 he is looking sharply out to prevent others from trading 
in " their parts." The meetings at the hospital must have been 
pleasant and business like, even outside the duties of the charity. 
Some of these great merchants, the pioneers and founders of 
English trade, must have been even liberal and advanced thinkers 
in their day. 

The locality about the hospital, notwithstanding the original 
reputation for pure air and water which led to its foundation there, 
was filthy enough. Ditches everywhere abounded — some of con- 
siderable size, and with many small bridges to cross over them. 
Now and later the banks of the sewers — wharfs, as they are 
called in the presentments — are often noted as ruinous, as re- 
ceiving the refuse of trades, as thickly studded with " houses of 
office," with hogstyes, which, to use the old words of the present- 
ments, greatly annoy the sewar. Mr. Cure is much annoyed by 
one house of office, which discharges its contents close to him. 
The court (held 1571) orders its prompt removal. Mr. Cure, the 
royal saddler, is a person of much local importance. The hospital 
precincts were not, however, quite sweet. An order of 1647 says 



THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. HOSPITAL WARDS, 1658. I $5 

that refuse of all sorts from the wards was cast out into the yards. 
The casting- was not forbidden, but the place was to be clean 
swept. On to 1694 the hospital was noted as very old, low, and 
damp, although 2,000/. had been spent upon it. A map of the 
sewers so late as 1760 shows open ditches of great extent about 
the hospital, running- near it toward the Thames. The names of 
places were very realistic — so much so that one wonders how 
people consented to live in them. In my time Pump Court, in 
Long Lane, was too vulgar, and Valentine Place was seen instead. 
Then " Theeves Lane was by Thomas's Hospital." Dirty Lane 
just opposite ; and, as if the dirt was general, and required a 
variation of name, Foul Lane was also close at hand. This was phy- 
sical filth, but moral filth had appropriate localities and names. The 
best I can note is Naked Boy Alley. The rest are not suited even 
for a plain topographical book ; but they may be seen in maps so 
late as Rocque's magnificent and evidently truthful one of 1742 
and after. There is Deadman's Place not far off ; and, whatever 
its origin, it had become a well-filled burial-ground, and from it 
could be seen several others. The parish churchyard, like that 
of its predecessor, St. Margaret's, multiplied and grew, and one 
burial-ground became many, until, indeed, they became an open 
scandal. Long Lane was so called, evidently, from its length, for 
it was long- enough. Long Southwark and Short Southwark give 
us a comparative idea of them. Frequent mention of aliens 
occurs in the time of Elizabeth — "Dutch," and "Walloons," and 
" Frenche." In the hospital records are noticed Jan Vanderpoort, 
the silk weaver, and Hendryck Beestmans ; and the Flemish burial- 
ground is next the hospital. In 1572 the cowrtt grants a tenement 
in Frenche Alley to John Preter, a frencheman, at a yearly rent 
of 50J. — a goodly tenement. He must have brought over some 
business. His friends give to the governors their " worde and 
promys " for the rent. A subsidy list of 1524 gives for the parish 
of St. Thomas's Hospital sixty-nine names. Among these " aliens " 
are twelve Frenchemen and one Scot. The total subsidy of this 
parish was 15/. 0.r. "zd.; while the whole for Southwark was 
386/. 13^. — value of that time, it must be remarked. In 1658 the 
wards of the hospital are named Kings, Jonas, Queens, Mag- 
dellins, Abrams, Isaiah, Arons, Dorcas, Jobes, Judiths, Zebedees, 



156 OLD SOUTinVARK AXD ITS PEOPLE. 

Noahs, and another or two. 1693, they were Cooke, King, Jonah, 
Noah, Tobias, Queen, Magdalen, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Dorcas, 
Job, Lazarus, Judith, Susanna, and Abdiel. In these wards were 
people with diseases and accidents of no very exact name. 
One is " Sore Legs ; his two feet taken off ; ffits ; Chanker in his 
throat ; two ffistolahs ; shortness of breath ; Augue and ffeav"^ ; 
Imposthumation in the Lunges ; A hole through his hand ; Kings 
Evill," and the like — 163 in all. 

The hospital as an independent building had, as already narrated, 
its origin in fire ; and more than once, as might be expected from 
the frail, combustible materials of the earlier towns, it has suffered 
from the same cause. The great fire of 1666, confined to the City, 
affected the hospital in its possessions. Those in Southwark — 
1676, 1681, and 1689— came nearer home; but the hospital was 
still, except in its revenues, wonderfully spared. That which 
began under the new wall, within the hospital itself, in 1696, 
threatened to be serious, but was soon quenched, sailors and other 
patients materially assisting. In one MS.'' are noted gratuities 
given to certain sailors and others for their very effectual aid 
in this time of trouble. A very good return on the part of the 
seamen, as not long before a very strong remonstrance, that " the 
seamen must not perish in the streets," had been sent to the 
governors, who had, it was said, neglected to take them in. As 
to the fire, 1676, it burnt its way even to the hospital gate, and 
was there stayed.' 

In 1694 an ad miscricordiam complaint comes from the hospital 
that it is old, low, and damp ; that 2,000/. had been spent in re- 
building, a first stone of these new buildings having been placed 
by the Lord Mayor in 1692. The governors say that, for want of 
money, they cannot g-o on with the work. Accordingly, a great 
effort was made. A long list of the liberal governors and other 
donors was made ; and also, by way of stimulus, a list of the 
governors who had not subscribed toward the new buildings. 
The ultimate results were contributions of about 38,000/., and some 
other very liberal arrangements on the part of the City of London.' 

' MS. Sloane, 2728. 

' See ante, p. 47. 

« Golding's ' History ' and MS., B. M. 



% fkn 



OF THE 



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IN 

SOUTHWARK 



DIMENSIONS. 



lien^th/ of thjey little- (Juy-pel 

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TfuilengthortJieN.GvssIsU29.I)?ofS.3I. total LengOv IZI 

Brecai/A' cf tlie Middle- Isle 30 

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iJf of South Lie 16 




O 10 2C 30 40 5C 

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SCALE OF FEET. 
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Remains of Cloister Buildings. 

EASTERN ELEVATION AND ASPECT. 



STABLE 




vVATERLOVV^SCM ' LlMl'i'EO.L'TH lCNL'L' 



ARTHUR tiler's PLAN, 1759. 157 

I now leave the old St. Thomas's Hospital, hoping by -and -by 
to pick up again the thread of its history and doings. 

EXPLANATION OF TILER'S PLAN OF THE CHURCH 
OF ST. SAVIOUR. 
The excellent lithograph which accompanies this article is the 
ground plan of the Church of St. Saviour, in Southwark, drawn 
by Arthur Tiler in 17S9. Taken before the alterations, it repre- 
sents the plan of the old church and its accessories. The remains 
of conventual buildings are from Carlos ;'' the whole corrected 
from some recent observations by my friend Mr. Dollman.' Mr. 
Benson's excellent little guide book will best tell of its more modern 
condition. This refers to the old church, which alone concerns me 
here. Arthur Tiler is a high local authority ; his plan is perhaps 
the best we can have. His book, The History and Antiquities of St. 
Saviour's,'' is as good as it is scarce ; " little and good," in fact. 
Here I append only the words of description published with Tiler's 
large plate or broadsheet of the plan, and which are explanatory 
also of my copy. The figures and letters correspond with those 
in the lithograph, as they do also with the same in Tiler's 
broadsheet. 

" I. Tomb of Lance'"' Andrews Bishop of Winchester, with 
his Effigie in y° Robes of the Garter. Died in 1626, aged 71. In 
this Chap' is a Vault, y° Entrance at i.O. 2. An Alter Tomb, with 
y° Effigie of a dead Man with a Shorn Crown, lying in his winding 
Sheet & represented as if only Skin & Bone for the Father to the 
Founder.^ 3. Monument of John Morton, 163 1. 4. Do. of Mary 
Maynard, 1653. 5. Do. of Rich* Benifield. 6. Screen & Gates, 
set up in 1703. 7. Two Altar Tombs, that near No. 10 supposed 
to be for W" Cure, Esq'., 1598. 8. Monum' of R* Humble, 
1616. 9. Do. James Shaw, 1670. 10. Do. John Trehearne,Esq''., 
Genrieman Porter to K^ James ist. 11. Stairs to the Steeple. 

= Gent. Mag., June, 1835. 

' Whose promised monograph of the chiu'ch will be, I think, our highest 
authority as to Old St. Saviour's. 

' Published 1765, by J. Wilkie, at the liiljle, in St. Paul's Churchyard. 

" But probably represents only a "Memento Mori" figure, very common in 
old churches. 



158 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS TKOrLE. 

On March 12, 1758, was rung here a Peal of SP40, in S hours 
& 13 minutes, being y° greatest ever done on 12 Bells. 12. Reading 
Desk & Pulpit. 13. Monum' of R* Bliss, Esq',, 1703, under which 
is a Vault of Dame Bliss. 14. A Wooden Image of a K' Templer. 
15. Monum* of Dr. Lockyar, 1672. 16. A Door bricked up, on 
which is placed a Tablet for S' R" How, K', 1732. 17. A Hollow 
Pillar which descends from the Roof -| way. 18. An Addition of 
4 Pillars. 19. Tomb of Jn" Gower, Esq'., Poet Lauret in y' Reign 
of Rich'^ 2^. 20. Two low Arches bricked up. 21. Stairs to the 
Roof, &c. 22. Three Niches bricked up. 23. A Door with an 
ascent of Steps to the Church Yard, which hath been raised S 
feet since it was first built. 24. Monum* of W" Hare, 1728. 
25. Do. of John Symons, 1625. 26. A Door now masoned up. 
27. On this Pillar is carved the Arms of Beaufort; by the 
remaining Sculpture on each side the Arms, it appears to be done 
for Strings pendant & platted in a. True Lovers Knot (from a 
Cardinal's Hat placed over them). 28. A Small Monum* of W" 
Emerson, with an Effigie in a winding Sheet, 1572, Aged 92. 
29. Door to the Vault which was sunk'd in 1703. 30. Monum* 
of W" Austin, Esq'., 1623. 31. A little Door Mason'd up. 
32. Monum* of John Bingham, Esq'., 1625. 33. A Grave Stone, 
in length 10 feet, on which was a border and Figure in Brass of a 
Bishop in his Pontificalibus, supposed for W" Wickham, Bp. 
of this Diocess, who died June 11, 1595, & was buried here.- 
34. Door made in 1676. 35. Monum* of Tho' Sedgwick, 1724. 
36. A Grave Stone, the Brass inscription torn off. + Niches 
where stood the Holy Water. :■ Wooden Pillars supporting the 
Gallerys. = Stairs up to Do. A. B. C. D. & E. Basis (sic) of 
the remaining five Gothic Towers, the sixth being taken down. 
F. Bone-houses, &c. 

"The Church was adorned at the East end with 6 Gothic 
Towers, jutting from the same in a Square, wrought with 
Gothic pannels ; these Towers are joined to the Roof, and made 
to strengthen it by Arches, five now remaining. On the North 
Side, at the East end, is an angular Tower new coated with brick, 
the entrance being in the Bp' Court, and is Mason'd up. The 
South Door, No. 23, is a Portico of the Gothic Order ; over the 
entrance to the Church is a range of Pillars forming Niches, the 



ST. saviour's church. 1 59 

Centre having a projecting Pedestal. Tiie West end is adorned 
with two Octangular Towers coated J way from the Top with 
Brick, & on each side of the Window is curiously inlaid with Flint. 
The Steeple Sides are 35 Feet. At each Angle is a Spire made 
into Octangle-Pyramidical forms, the Battlements of which are 
composed of Flint in Squares or Chequer-Work. The Dial here 
was finished on May 12, 1759. The inside is supported by a 
range of Pillars dividing the Nave from the side Isles, answerable 
to which are Columns adjoining to the Walls, which as they rise 
spring into semiarches, and are everywhere met in acute Angles 
by their opposites, thereby throwing the Roof into a variety of 
Intaglios (ornamental carvings). The Middle and South Cross 
Roofs being repaired with wood in 1469, hath several Devices ; the 
chief are Symbols of the Crucifixon, Swans, a Tun supported by 
two Foxes. A Bolt and Tun. Arms of the Priory, and Shield 
with three Fishes fretted in triangle, &c. Over the Alter is carved 
in Stone an Angel crown'd, holding the seamless Coat, and on 
each side are three Swans, being the device of Henry the fourth. 
It is in the Diocese of Winchester, of which Henry Beaufort, 
Cardinal of S' Eusebus, was Bishop from 1404 to 1447 ; might 
have been a Benifactor towards the Rebuilding, which was 
about 1400. — Sale of the Church Lands during the Civil Wars, 
January 14, 1647. The Park for £1,191. 3. 4. The Beargarden, 
&c., for £1,783. 15. March 24 ,1647. The Faulcon and the Stews, 
bank-side, for £484. September 26, 1649. The Mannor of 
Southwark and Winchester House for £4,360. 8. 3. March 12, 
165 1. Several Lands and Houses belonging to the above Mannors 
for £465. 13. 4. Total £8,304. 19. ii." These are exact, as Tiler 
gives them, and are not referred to in my own text. 

THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY OVERY, 
AFTERWARDS ST. SAVIOUR'S. 
In the map (8) may be seen a few rude lines representing what is 
there called Sent Sauyors Church— that is, ST. SAVIOUR'S. It 
had but very recently received the name. Before, it was the 
priory church of St. Mary Overy. The priory having been just 
surrendered, an Act was passed, 1540, 32 Henry VIII., uniting the 



l60 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

two parishes of St. Mary Magdalen Overy and St. Margaret's into 
one, to be henceforward known as St. Saviour's ; and the priory 
church now became the parish church." I do not purpose to 
describe the church very minutely ; but I hope, with the aid of 
such accurate observers as Carlos, Gwilt, Moss, Taylor, Tiler, but 
chiefly Carter, to give a sufficiently interesting account of it.^ 

The noble old building, when deprived of the revenues of the 
priory and of the zeal of continual donors, was much too large and 
costly for the parishes, albeit two had been made one to receive it. 
The spoil had gone to court favourites, and the church became 
to the parish an instance of the proverbial white elephant. 
Had Southwark been a municipality, instead of a mere collection 
of disjointed parishes, the old church might have been restored as 
a whole, and have been a cathedral for Southwark, instead of 
being, as it is, a more or less disgraceful jumble of exceedingly 
beautiful proportions and parts, marred by cheap and ineffectual 
alterations. Happily, we have put the best of our restorations — 
that of the Lady Chapel, by George Gwilt-^to the front. It 
appears to be one of the very finest of the kind. That done, we 
permitted a gigantic railway trough, which might have been con- 
structed further south, to be placed close to and above it. Its beauty 
is, however, so great that even that abomination does not quite 
mar the effect ; but we have certainly done our best to stifle the 
beautiful. I am very willing to quit this line of thought, especially 
as my task is more with the past than the present. At the same 
time, one cannot but regret the absence of a great restoration of 
the whole upon the old lines. There is no ground for blame as 
to the parish, which had a costly work imposed upon it and at 
the same time the means were denied or diverted into private 
channels. 

I shall now chiefly follow Mr. Carter, who surveyed the building 

° Strype's Stow, ii. g. 

' The history by Moss treats chiefly of the fabric of the church. An able 
paper, read before the Surrey Archa:ological Society, by Mr. Griffiths, F.S.A., 
treats of the architecture of the nave. There are numerous alile contributions in 
bade pages of the Gcnikman's Magazine. I have reason to believe that a compe- 
tent and exhaustive monograph will by-and-by appear by Mr. Dollman, a well- 
known architect, .and an admirer of the old church. The chaplain, Mr, Benson 
in 1862, also published a very comprehensive little guide, 



THE CHAPELS AND THE CLOISTERS. l6l 

in his careful, competent way, in 1808. It was quite time to make 
a true record ; for between 1 797, his former visit, and this, many 
remains of attached buildings had fallen, making room for stables , 
manufactories, and other temporary erections. 

The date of the foundation of the priory appears to be i io5 ; 
but Carter notes only one relic of that time, in the interior of the 
west front of the church. With constant reference to the ground - 
plan published herewith, my description will be easily understood. 
The church was built upon a perfect cathedral arrangement, upon 
a smaller scale. For a parish church, it had the longest vista of 
any — its full length a little short of 300 feet — and the other parts 
were in proportion. The plan: — a nave, side aisles, transepts, and 
a choir. It is said that the Lady Chapel was part of an uninter- 
rupted space of about 240 feet long — a fine vista for the splendid 
processions and ceremonial of the old church. Proceeding from 
the east end, a small monumental chapel was run out, known as 
the Bishop's Chapel, from its being chiefly appropriated for the 
elaborate tomb of Bishop Andrewes. Some believe this to have 
been the true Lady Chapel, that which has been called so being 
in their opinion a retro-choir, a continuation probably for pro- 
cessional purposes of the internal space of the church, visible 
through the perforated screen of Bishop Fox. On the north side 
of the choir was the Chapel of St. John, afterwards the vestry. 
South of the choir, occupying nearly its whole line, was the 
Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, with its three aisles each way. It 
must be recollected that the church was a priory church, and had 
buildings and cloisters. The site of the cloisters and conventual 
buildings was north of the nave ; this obtained the name of 
Montague Close — close from the cloisters, Montague from the 
people who picked up the spoil at the dissolution of the monas- 
teries. Few traces of these cloisters existed in 1808 — that is, 
above ground — except, now stopped up, a large doorway in the 
north aisle of the nave, which appeared undoubtedly to have led 
into them. Some most important buildings, which I shall have to 
notice more particularly, extended from the north transept some 
100 feet direct toward the river. Probably these had been a hall 
or refectory, and dormitories of the priory. Old features of the 
style of Henry VII.'s time, notably the west front, are gone. The 



1 62 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

west doorway, a mag-nificent specimen of the early part of the 
fifteenth century work, with rich oal<. doors, was evidently, even in 
its dilapidated state, a fine worli, and worthy of close study. The 
print of it in Moss's work, and in Pugin's specimens of Gothic 
architecture, is in itself a beautiful picture, which was very taste- 
fully imitated for an ornamental festive ticket in 1835. In the 
centre of the western end of the nave was a large, rich window 
with six lights. In the north aisle was a window hid by a hovel 
reared against it, and in the south aisle a window nearly perfects 
At the south side of the nave was a grand porch, in the early style 
of the fabric, having a double entrance made by columns, show- 
ing rich capitals and other interesting embellishments, now, says 
Carter, cruelly cut about. The rest of the windows here were fine 
and in good preservation, as were the buttresses between them. 
Further particulars of the state in 1808 may be read in Mr. 
Carter's papers in the Gentleman's Magazhie for that year. 

St. Mary Magdalen Chapel was founded and built about 1238, 
within the priory precincts, by Peter de Rupibus, the Bishop of 
Winchester. That has long since disappeared. The chapel 
described by Carter had the appearance of a mean and modern 
makeshift, not in accord with the church, as a reference to Hollar's 
view, 1647, and various others since, show. Carter notes the recent 
compo and innovations, the grand flying buttresses to the choir 
altered and disguised by modern brickwork. The Magdalen Chapel 
was the church of the small parish of St. Mary Magdalen Overy 
before it was united with St. Margaret's, and was of the dimen- 
sions of some 55 feet by 40, and had a nave and aisles. How it 
communicated with the south aisle of the church will be seen in 
the ground-plan. Four of the windows, and the divisions in which 
they were, of the south aisle of the choir, had been cut away and 
made into large arched openings into St. Mary Magdalen's Chapel. 
The chapel was removed at the time of the restoration of the choir 
by Mr. Gwiit. To proceed with Carter's description. The grand 
centre tower rises above the church in three stories — the first 
plain, the second and third having two windows each on the four 
sides. The walls are finished with battlements ; and at the angles of 
the tower are turrets with spires. The upper stories are Tudor 
work, the spires themselves a sort of mock restoration done some 



ST. SAVIOUR'S CHURCH. 1 63 

few years past. From this tower Hollar took his famous views of 
London before and after the great fire of 1666. 

The interior of the church. — The nave is marked by seven divi- 
sions of arches of the early pointed style. The first division was 
of large circular columns, with smaller ones at the cardinal points. 
Other columns, octangular and circular alternately, had smaller 
columns attached. The small columns against the west wall had 
Saxon bases and capitals, hinting that the primary building was 
probably of that order. The beautiful Anglo-Norman doorway, 
hid from view by brickwork, and disclosed about 1830, points the 
same way. For this and some early architectural fragments of 
the church, see Taylor's Annals. Brickwork and plaster were 
most freely used by the successive custodians of the church. Most 
of the beauties telling of its ancient grandeur have, however, been 
disclosed in the process of restorations and removals within this 
century. The gallery story, in the third or window story of the 
tower, shows beautiful mouldings of flowers, of tracery, and elabo- 
rate groinings of or before the Tudor times. Originally the tower 
was open. The closing in with a roof was a late construction. 
We may imagine the effect of the whole when the entire length 
from the altar screen, including the choir and the intersection of 
the transepts, was all open, the light from the windows of the 
tower streaming down ; when the eye passed along the magnifi- 
cent perspective of pillars below, and story upon story of arches 
above, till it rested on the fine old western window at one extremity, 
nearly 250 feet distant ; and looking from the west there was, at 
the east end, the beautiful screen of Bishop Fox. Take account, 
also, of the gorgeous vestments and rich implements at one time in 
the possession of the churches, used in solemn and imposing pro- 
cessions, with voices and bells ringing along the space. The picture 
of our old church in the Popish times may well overawe us, and 
strike us with some thought as to the present silent and undecorated 
contrasts. Carter — I am using his own words — complains bitterly 
of the barbarous way in which the church was from time to time 
repaired. One instance : Within the second division of the south 
aisle is the entrance from the great porch. The windows in con- 
tinuation of this aisle are, he says, precious, as they possess their 
first mullions and tracery ; yet, as no satisfaction is without alloy, 

M 2 



164 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

they have lately been compoed upon, under which mania they, of 
course, suffered much. But, in despite of compo and brick and 
other props, the old nave could be kept no longer standing-. 

The new will bear no comparison with the old ; and, happily, it 
stands modestly in the reai" of the finer parts of the building-. The 
keeping up or restoring this choice church should have been a 
national, or at least a metropolitan, work. It might have been, 
considering the connexion of the City people with the borough, a 
proud work for them. Any way, it should never have been imposed 
upon a parish as yet sparsely populated and poor. If it had been 
the first intent to keep the church up, it should have been endowed 
with, at least, a liberal part of the spoils of the priory. But the 
rich spoil went to the courtiers, and the old church fabric to the 
people. 

The north side aisle contains the very curious monument of 
Gower, executed in the reign of Richard II. — the statue of the first 
costumic sculpture, but, unfortunately, says Carter, in the usual 
prostrate devotional attitude. The north transept of the main 
design has most of its windows blocked up. At the end is a very 
ancient cross-legged knight, carved in oak. Contrary to the first 
intent, and by a ridiculous perversion, they have raised the old 
knight on his legs. The south transept, the same in style as the 
north, is more perfect in its mullions and tracery ; but the great 
south window, miserably modernized, is a blot. T would remind the 
reader of this " OLD SOUTHWARK" look, that Carter is speaking 
of the church as he found it in 1 808, when as yet, and not much longer, 
sufficient of the ancient tracery and form remained, for the skilled eye to 
see the building as it was in its best time. 

From within we observe the great tower, in the centre of the 
two transepts, supported by four grand clusters of columns and 
arches, with their architraves, in the best style of Edward III.'s 
day. Above the arches is laid a flat painted ceiling, representing 
some aerial perspective — a strange mode of embellishment common 
to halls and chambers in the time of Charles II. and after. This 
ceiling is more immediately to be condemned in this place, as it 
excludes from view the very fine interior of the tower above, 
evidently erected with the intent that its decorations might be seen 
from below, as at York, Durham, and other places. The position 



CARTER ON ST. SAVIOUR'S. 165 

of the organ and the "pew lumber" offends Mr. Carter. The 
organ — not only here, but everywhere — should, he says, be pro- 
perly disposed on one side of the interior, that the charming 
architecture might be seen. The choir has five divisions of arches 
on each side : the columns circular and octangular, with smaller 
circular columns at the four points ; the centre column to each 
rising to the top of the gallery story, and supporting the groins, 
which are of the plain intersecting kind, but of the most delightful 
proportion and elegant sweep. One window is noted as displaying 
what is termed the architectural Three in One, as in Salisbury 
Cathedral and other works of the same date. The interior of the 
great tower is formed of four stories. On each side of the first 
are four arches with columns, and a gallery of communication 
behind them ; on the second, three large arches on each side, 
all in the early style of the church ; the third and fourth stories 
are of Tudor work, and alike in their parts; on each side 
of these two stories are two large and lofty windows; between 
these two stories is a flat compartmented ceiling and an en- 
tablature. These objects were still in their original colouring. 
"It is evident that at the period of its setting up, the tower 
was clear to view up to this point ; and the whole gaze must 
have been in every respect pleasing and prepossessing. When we 
reflect on the great fire ( 1666), or, more probably, the rage of 
professional men at that period to do away with all trace of our 
national architecture in London, in order to introduce a foreign 
m'elange mode of design, we may wonder that one ancient structure 
bearing so much of its first features as this of St. Mary should 
have been suffered to remain in being. But as chance has not 
wholly forsaken antiquarian minds in this respect, let us prize the 
more the jewel before us, which may be deemed one of the last 
existing glories of London's former splendour." And so our old 
friend, while exalting his pet, St. Mary Overie, flings his contempt 
upon the architect of St. Paul's. 

So Carter, an acute architect and antiquarian, pieces together 
the bones of the old edifice, and gives us, while there was yet 
something left to describe, and as no one else could, more than a 
glimpse of departed grandeur — not easy to do, considering the 
troubles and accidents which have beset the place from the begin- 



1 66 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

ning ; but his eye, his zeal, and his knowledge were thorough, and 
he is a safe guide. 

" St. Mary Overy's Church forms such an essential link in the 
historical evidence relating to the progress of the pointed style, 
that it has the greatest interest for not only the antiquary, but for 
the artist, historian, and man of taste." ^ 

In 1208 a fire drove out the monks. The restoration was not 
long delayed. Anno 1208, lOth John, " Seynt Marie Overie was 
that yere begonne." Bishop Peter it was who rebuilt the church 
.in the new or pointed style — the lancet architecture, as it is called. 
At this period (thirteenth century) Gothic architecture flourished. 
The scarce Saxon and Anglo-Norman relics already referred to 
give us a notion, ex pede Herculem, of the first church. Thus was 
the Norman structure of Bishop Giflard and the Norman knights 
quickly superseded. I may note in passing a ceremony which took 
place in this earliest church, by which the second Earl Warren, of 
Southwark, gave the church of Kirkesfield to this church of St. 
Mary; in Southwark, and confirmed the grant by placing a certain 
small knife on the altar of the church, in the first year when 
canons regular were admitted. The Warrens, who were the 
earliest Norman lords of Southwark, were liberal enough to the 
church — to this as to others. Words of one charter, said to have 
been taken out of the book of the monastery of St. Mary Overy, 
run thus : " I, William of Warren, and the Countess Isabel my wife, 
with our son, for the honour and love of God, &c., and for the souls 
of King William the first and second, &c., and for the souls of my 
father William and my mother Gundred,' &c., have granted for 
ever to the church of Mary of Southwark and its canons the church 
of Churgesfield, Reigate, with the church of Begesurde and the 
church of Haleghe." Other gifts from this family are enumerated. 
Earl Reginald was buried at St. Mary Overy's, and was a bene- 
factor. An eifigy of a Norman knight is in the church. Strangely 
enough, it was removed and set upright to make way for the quack 
doctor Lockyer. The effigy of the old knight and benefactor was 

° Carlos, MS. Histoiy, p. m. 

' Daughter or stepdaughter of the Conqueror. Manning and Bray, vol. iii. 
p. 564, say Hamelin, not William ; and they name the churches differently, but the 
facts are the same, 



REBUILDINGS AND RErAIRS. 1 67 

Otherwise treated very disrespectfully. Had anything- been left of 
him, he must have " turned in his grave." " Here " — I quote from 
Stow,ed. 1720— "against the north wall is placed an ancient figure 
of a Knight Templar cross legged in armour, with his dagger 
drawn in one hand and the sheath in the other. It is new painted 
and flourished up, and looks somewhat dreadful. It had been 
thrown up and down the church before, and here they have placed 
it against the wall upright, whereas it ought to have been laid 
along, as the effigies of dead men on their tombs usually are."* 
A stained glass window, in old time at St. Mary Overie's, a sketch 
of which was taken in 1610,^ shows the figures of three knights — 
one of them with the Warren arms. The effigy and the glass 
have reference, it is believed, to the same Reginald Warren, but 
certainly to one of this family of liberal benefactors. 

To proceed with our church. In 1273 the work of restoration 
is still incomplete, but is proceeding. By way of encouragement, 
Walter, Archbishop of York, grants thirty days' indulgence to all 
who should contribute to the fabric of the church. In 1400 also 
the church is said to have been almost rebuilt. Four years after 
Beaufort became Bishop of Winchester, and held feasts in Win- 
chester Palace. It is probable that he gave of his great riches on 
the occasion, the arms of the Beauforts, carved in stone on a pillar 
in the south cross aisle, having been found during the late restora- 
tion, i.e., strings plaited in a true lovers' knot, with a cardinal's 
hat over. The poet Gowar was also about this time a most liberal 
benefactor. The church rebuilt, it was found that the builders had 
learned to produce bad work, as in 1469,9 Edward IV., the middle 
roof of the church at the west end fell in, and probably that of the 
north cross also. They were now both repaired with wood, together 
with much beside of the church. In 162 1 -2 the building was ex- 
tensively repaired. All the north side, St. Peter's Chapel — that is, 
the north transept — was " strengthened and beautified (!) with a 
substantial Rough cast." In 1676 a disastrous fire reached the 
outworks — approached the church on three sides, in fact — and 
burnt one of the chapels. The roof of the Bishop's Chapel fell in 
on this occasion, and defaced the monument of Bishop Andrewes, 

" Strype's 'Stow,' 1720, p. 15. 
' Taylor. 



l68 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

The long and elaborate epitaph was now destroyed, and not 
restored. But for the free use of gunpowder and a change of 
wind, the church must this time have perished. In 1680 it is 
reported that the north side is " likely to fall." There is a vestry 
entry to "view it." In 168 1 part of the church is taken down. 
In 1682 part of the vestry, with " a pigeon house" close to it, is 
taken down. The fabric must have been patched up and kept 
going until 1703, when repair and restoration are effected, and are 
recorded on a tablet thus' : " This church was laid throughout with 
stone, new pewed and galleryd, the great vault sunk, the pulpit and 
altar piece erected, the communion table railed, and sett with black 
and white marble, the choir inclosed by gates, the south and west 
windowes opened and enlarged, the whole new glazed, the 6"" and 
7*'' bells cast, the chapell paved and all the church cleansed white- 
washed and beautifyed at the charge of the parish An° 1703." 
There was at least an appearance of good work on this occasion. 
In an edition of Stow,' " it is pronounced to be a very magnificent 
church since the late reparation ; it hath also, says Strype, a huge 
organ, procured by voluntary subscription .... the cost in all 
about 2,600/., and that well laid out. The old monuments are 
all refreshed and new painted, and a great deal of wainscotting 
supplied. The workmanship of the arches and columns (which are 
very big) bespeak it a very ancient structure." Architects con- 
cerned often name in comparison the Salisbury Cathedral ; the 
pictures of the one always remind me of the other, so like are they 
at first sight .^ 

THE LADY CHAPEL, or retro-choir, may, except for its 
freshness, be said to represent the oldest state of this part of 
the edifice. By common consent of skilled and unskilled, Mr. 
Gwilt made a good restoration. A competent study of some few 
ruined remains, made complete by reference to a model of the 
period, Salisbury Cathedral, enabled him to finish worthily this 
most charming work. This part merits a more lengthened notice. 

" Vol. V. p. 192, Aubrey. 
' 1720, vol. ii. pp. lo-ii. 

* " Of the east end, no remains of the ancient building existed. The eastern 
end of Salisbury Cathedral furnished the requisite date." — Gtvilt, 



THE LADY CHAPEL OR RETRO-CHOIR. 169 

Dr. Rock " says, fancifully enough, that lady chapels were usually 
built, as this one, at the east end of the choir, behind the hig-h 
altar, symbolical of the Virgin as the morning star. Behind the 
perforated screen the sick and infirm could witness the service ; 
and those who had diseases of a contagious or forbidding nature 
might here be not quite shut out. Our fathers were very careful 
that the sick should be able to hear the services, Recesses and 
perforations have been discovered among the remains of old build- 
ings, notably in hospitals for lepers, that patients might hear the 
religious services in the chapels of their hospitals. The priest is 
represented as going to the doomed or incurable leper, exhorting 
him, sprinkling him with holy water, and conducting him to the 
church, singing the burial verses on the way to the church ; and 
then he was conducted to the Leprosery, and no doubt had oppor- 
tunity of religious service behind screens or in niches, concealed 
from others.^ But a chief use of such a place as the Lady Chapel 
would be to give imposing effect to the gorgeous processions in the 
churches, partly seen before emerging from the half-concealed 
chapel behind the altar. In 1553-4, " My Lord of London ordered 
every church to provide cross, cope, and staff for processions" — 
that is, for within and without the sacred edifices. In November, 
i535> 27 Henry VIII., there was a great procession by the King's 
command, at which were the canons of St. Mary Overy, with 
crosses, candlesticks, and vergers before them, all singing the 
Litany.' Our Lady Chapel was no doubt part of the church built 
in the reign of Henry III. by Bishop de Rupibus. It was probably 
then open to the church, forming a most complete and tasteful 
finish at the eastern end, with a vista of 250 feet. " Except the 
Temple," says Carter, " there is nothing so perfect as the Spiritual 
Court.' One of the most chaste and elegant specimens of the 
early pointed architecture of the thirteenth century in the country ; 
for soon after the simplicity of design became florid and overlaid " : — 

^ ' Church of our Fathers,' vol. iii. p. 465. 

' ' Leprosy and Leper Hospitals, ' by Dr. .Simpson, Edinhn-gh Med. and Surg. 
Journal, 1841. 

' Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 560. 

3 The modem designation of the Lady Chapel. It is the only one in the 
diocese of Winchester ; this, of course, before the recent change. 



170 OLD SOUTPIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

" In the solid pillars and acute arches, in the lancet windows and 
simple groined roof, may be viewed an unaltered building of the 
thirteenth century.* The groins of the chapel are perfect, and 
extremely beautiful. The whole scene is solemn and impressive. 
The exterior is remarkable, unique as to its fine gables, which, 
with its pinnacle at the north-east angle, are now, except as to its 
existence in a pit, to be seen in perfection. Corresponding to these 
four gables were, within, four aisles — the outer ones continuous with 
the north and south aisles of the church — and from east to west 
three aisles." Under the window in the last north division was a 
Tudor- worked monument, with the statue of a skeleton — a sort of 
memento mori, and common in churches. I saw one lately in Exeter 
Cathedral. " No one in particular," said the custodian, in answer 
to my question as to whom, it might represent ; " only a common 
emblem of death." 

At the east end a small chapel was run out in two divisions. It 
had tracery windows — two of them stopped up, and one altered 
to place there a monument of James I.'s reign, i.e., for Bishop 
Andrewes ; also two very ancient stone coffins were here pre- 
served. This, called the BISHOP'S CHAPEL, was constructed 
later than the Lady Chapel. It is joined to it, and runs out from it 
due east. A woodcut '" shows how the second division, south-east 
of the fan and window, was altered or taken away, to connect the 
Lady Chapel with its newer annexe. The architecture of the later 
chapel was in the style of temp. Henry III., and was, therefore, 
built not so very long after the older one was finished. If this 
chapel was at first part of the continuous church, without screen or 
interruption, then probably the Bishop's was the original Lady 
Chapel. It was, as I have said, built long before it was appro- 
priated for the tomb of Bishop Andrewes. The Bishop dying in 
Winchester House, his tomb being so sumptuous, and taking up so 
much of the small space, no doubt gave it the name of the Bishop's 
Chapel. However this may be, the chapel and the remains were 
all removed together in 1830. The interior of this chapel was in 
dimensions about 33 feet east and west by 19 feet north and south, 

■* Carlos, Gent. Ma«., 1832. 

'- Brayley, ' Graphic lUustrEitor,' p. 17. 



BISHOP fox's altar SCREEN. 171 

making the length of the whole edifice from west to east not much 
less than 300 feet. The proportions will be seen in the ground- 
plan. A view in Moss gives the interior communication ; that in 
Brayley, the exterior ; and a very excellent cut in Wilkinson's 
' Londina,' the exterior view complete. 

Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester 1500-1528, a Httle before 
the time of our map, I have already noticed in connexion with 
Winchester House, the Southwark palace of the Bishops of Win- 
chester. The bishop was a man ot great taste, was devoted to 
the church and very liberal to it. He adorned his own cathedral 
of Winchester with a most beautiful altar-screen of stone, having 
canopied niches. He most munificently erected a similar one in this 
his quasi-cathedral of St. Saviour's in Southwark. It was on the 
same plan, probably by the same designer. It is therefore fairly 
inferred that Bishop Fox did this good work. An altar-screen is 
defined to be a back wall to the choir of a church, separating it 
from the presbytery or lady chapel behind it ; so here, on the occa- 
sion of the restoration of the choir by Mr. Gwilt, an altar-screen of 
wood and plaster, probably of Wren's time, was removed. Then 
were discovered canopies which had been very badly used, probably 
with intentional and conscientious barbarity. But, even after all 
this, a work of great beauty was disclosed — a series of niches with 
canopies, which, says Carlos, was no doubt erected shortly after the 
Winchester screen was put up. The two screens agree not only 
in the arrangement and general design, but in the number of the 
niches. The design has a height of three stories, again divided in 
accord with the sacred figure 3, so much used in the architecture of 
St. Saviour's. In the centre of the lower division, room is left for 
the altar-table. Grotesque carvings were about, of human beings 
chasing some animals, and in the centre a fool with his bauble ; 
these peculiar to this screen. The upper cornice was ornamented 
with the paschal lamb and the pelican, with foliage of the oak and 
acorns interspersed. The cornice of the second compartment had, 
as in the upper one, the paschal lamb and the pelican ; but the 
foliage was varied to roses, lilies, and twisted thorns, interspersed 
with heads of the Saviour and St. John of most exquisite workman- 
ship. "The so-called restoration of Bishop Fox's altar-screen 
took place under the direction of Mr. Robert Wallace, as did also 



1/2 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the rebuilding- of the north and south transepts in 1830.'" Mr. 
Carlos, to whom we are so greatly indebted, had an article as to 
this screen, with a picture of it, in the Gentleman's Magazine, Feb- 
ruary, 1834. So the fine gift of Bishop Fox may be understood 
and appreciated/ 

About IS 59 the governors of the parish appear to have felt the 
screw of debt, and became in some respects rigid economists. 
This church was always needing repair; the graveyards soon 
became filled, and new ones had to be found or extemporized. One 
curious saving seems to have been effected by packing away 
the bones, and so making room for new comers. Accordingly, 
F F F in the ground-plan represent " bone-houses," i.e., external 
niches or closets for the reception of bones. I find in the church- 
wardens' accounts, 1598, an item, "P* to the gravemakers for 
burying the dead men's bones, viij*." In " I5S9, Popish vestments 
are to be sold for repair of this church." This same year, 
August 13, 1SS9, a new school-house is to be built; so the church- 
wardens and vestrymen resolve " it shall be done where the old 
church-house in the parish of St. Margaret was, and the old 
chapel behind the chancel," — what we now call the Spiritual Court, — 
" shall be let for the benefit of the school." The writer in Stow, 
1 720, R notices this with proper indignation, how " the 30 vestry- 
men and churchwardens leased and let out the old Lady Chapel, 
and made the House of God a bakehouse. Two very fair doors 
that form the two side aisles of the chancel went into it, were 
lathed, daubed, and dammed up ; the fair pillars were ordinary 
posts, against which they piled billets and bavins (brush faggots) ; 
in this place they had their ovens, in that a bolting-place, in that 
their kneading-trough, in another (I have heard) a hog's trough. 
It was first let by the Corporation to one Wyat, after him to one 
Peacock, then to Cleybrooke, and last to one Wilson, all bakers ; 
and part of the building was used as a starch-house." In the parish 
records, May, 1579, "The wardens are to treat with Peacock the 
baker about surrendering up part of the premises he holds, and to 

. G. Gwilt. 

' Concanen and Morgan, ' St. Saviour's,' p. 77. I am a little puzzled by this 
passage. 1618, 15 Jac. I. "The screen at the entrance of the chapel of the 
Virgin Maiy was this year set up." 



BAKERS AND PIGS IN THE LADY CHAPEL. 173 

let him a lease of the Spiritual Court, which he occupies as a tenant 
at will." Accordingly, Oct., 1579, ^ le^-se is granted to John Pea- 
cock for 2 1 years, for a fine of 20/. and a rent of 5/. a year. " He 
is to keep it sweet and clean, and in sufficient repair." About this 
same time they go to the expense of a new door, the other side 
of the church, into my Lord Montacute's house. Pigs at one end, 
and my Lord at the other.— 1607. One of the tenants finds him- 
self inconvenienced by a tomb " of a certain Cade," and asks the 
vestry to allow him to remove it; this is, in a very friendly 
manner, consented to, "but it must be made up again in any 
reasonable sort."^ Later on the vestry proceedings show a meal- 
shop cellar burrowing its way to the church ; how a place is made 
up at the west end of the church for coal storage ; how " houses 
of office" openly leak into the channels immediately about the 
church ; how one part after another abutting on the church, south 
and north and east, are, when the older places become full, taken 
in to eke out burial space.' After about seventy years it seems 
to occur to the vestrymen that the occupation by bakers and their 
pigs is not a decent use of the Lady Chapel, and possession is 
once more in the hands of the vestry. It is now cleansed, repaired, 
and restored at an expense of 200/., some zealous persons lending 
a helping hand. In 1625 one aisle is paved at the cost of John 
Hayman, merchant taylor, whose monument is noticed. 

A few very interesting incidents may be related here; the 
laying a small knife on a tomb in the church, as a ratifying token of 
a grant by one of the Warrens, has already been noticed. Twelve 
acres of land were left by another and a lamp was kept always 
burning in the church as a token of the gift. In 1272, John 
Tuatard and John clerk to St. Mary Magdalen are playing at 
" tiles " " quoits " in the churchyard of St. Mary, Southwark, and the 
first John is killed by a blow on the head. John the clerk passes 
info the church of St. Mary Magdalen, probably as sanctuary, and 
is seen no more for the present. — 1352. A Bishop of Rochester, 
John de Shepey, is here consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester. 
In ISS4 the Lord Chancellor did consecrate six new bishops before 

^ Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 570. 
" Parish Records. 



1/4 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the high altar at St. Mary Overy ; then to the palace at hand, " to 
as g-rete a dener as youe have seen." Gardiner had just before, 
as chief member of a commission, deprived their predecessors.^ 
In iSSS) Winchester, and other bishops, had commission from 
Cardinal Pole as to preachers and heretics ; the same day they sit 
in judgment in St. Mary Overy's church. This January the 
tribunal sat four times in Southwark, and before them was Bishop 
Hooper, the learned translator of the Bible ; Matthews, that is 
Rogers ; and some nine others ; most of whom were degraded, if that 
word can be used, and condemned to the fire. Some " to as gfreat a 
dener as you ever saw," some to death by fire!— all for opinions which 
are for ever fluctuating. In 1 5 S 7 a heretic is brought into the church, 
to be preached at before the people, — a common custom. In 1553, 
Feckenham, chaplain to Bonner and to Mary, the author of 
'Caveat Emptor,' i.e. "beware how you buy Abbey lands," &c., 
preaches before the Earl of Devonshire, Sir Anthony Browne, and 
other nobles, at the church of St. Mary Overy. Gardiner preaches 
here often ; one time just before the Priory is suppressed. Another 
time he preached here a celebrated sermon, which had something 
to do with raising dangerous questions and exciting obstruction, 
as his clever manner was ; for which he was presently deprived. 
One other time, 1547, he orders a great and solemn service, a 
dirge for the late King.'' But now there was a new king who 
knew not this Joseph ; so the dreaded Bishop is jeered at. The 
'State Paper,' February s, 1547, runs thus: "Stephen Gardiner 
to Paget, — intends to have a solemn dirge and mass for his late 
master " ; at the same time the players in Southwark announce 
" a solemne playe to trye who shal have most resorte — they in game, 
or I in ernest " ; he requests that the Lord Protector will interfere. 
In 1587 the pulpit is occupied with another controversy; Cooper, 
now Bishop of Winchester, had offended the Marprelate men,^ 
" before hundreds of people at Marie Oueries last Lent," who 
in return, assail him and his " as impudent, shamelesse wainscote- 

' Machyn. 
= Hemy VIII. 

-■' For a good, easily attainable account of tliem, their secret printing-presses, 
and tlieir intense hatred of bishops, see Isaac D'Israeli's 'Calamities of Authors,' 



SERMONS, MARRIAGES, AND FUNERALS. I7S 

faced bishops." Another conflict with the players from this pulpit. 
Mr. Sutton, the preacher at St. Mary Overies, 1616, denounces 
the stage. Nathan Field, son of a minister, and a noted actor of 
Shakespeare's period and of his plays, retorts in no measured 
terms.* " I beseech you understand," he says, " that you many 
tymes from the Holy Hill of Sion, the pulpitt, a place sanctified and 
dedicated for the winning not discouraging of soules, have sent 
forth bitter breathinges against that poore calling it hath pleased 
the Lord to place me in, that my spiritt is moved, the fire is kindled 
and I must speake," and so on. 

By way of change, — some great marriages took place at St. Mary 
Overies. 8 Henry IV., Dame Lucy, sister to the Duke of Milan, 
comes to London, and is married here to Edmund Holand, Earl of 
Kent. She had, says Stow, 100,000 ducats for her portion. James I. 
of Scotland had long been a prisoner in England. By way of a 
graceful winding up, he was married at St. Mary Overy's, in 1424, 
to the niece of the rich Cardinal Beaufort. The marriage feast 
was kept at Winchester House — next door, as it were. The 
grandeur of the feast may be inferred from the character of the 
Magnificent Cardinal, as Shakespeare describes him — good at a 
feast no doubt, as at a fray. 

Then there are very grand obsequies. Machyn, a diarist, 1550 
to 1563,^ is good at funerals, and seems greatly pleased if there is 
only sufficient grandeur. In 1554 the Duke of Norfolk, at St. 
Mary Overies, a hearse made with timber and hanged with black, 
his arms, four goodly candlesticks, gilded, and four great tapers, 
and all the quire hanged with black, and arms. A dirge 
and mass on the morrow. Gardiner is the chief mourner, and 
at the dirge my Lord Montague and others, and a great ring- 
ing two days ; that is the Sth October. On the 29th the famous 
Captain Sir Thomas Audley is buried; sixty great people, knights, 
and others attend the funeral. Other Audley s appear to have been 
buried at this church: Lord Audley, who died in 1SS9-60; a 
Lady Audley, in 1 544. Holbein has a likeness in colours of a very 

* " Field the Player's Letters to Mr. Sutton, Preacher at St. Mavy Overy, 
1616." In Halliwell's Illustrations, Life of Shakespeare, 1st part, Appendix xxiii. 
5 Camden Society. 



176 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE, 

lovely Lady Audley, who was buried at St. Mary Overys.' But 
the funeral and obsequies of Bishop Gardiner, noticed under "Win- 
chester House," in pomp and grandeur effectually eclipse them all. 
43 Edw. 3rd, August 13, 1369, Lady Cobham in her will directs 
that her body shall be buried in the churchyard of St. Mary Over- 
there^ before the door where the Blessed Virgin sitteth on high ; a 
plain marble stone to be laid over her grave, with a cross of metal 
thereon, and on it the words, " Vous qui per ici passietz, pur I'alme 
Johane de Cobham prietz." Before everything else, immediately 
after her death, 7,000 masses are to be said for her soul, and for 
the service she leaves 29/. 3^. /^d. She also leaves legacies " to the 
priests, to the sisters ministering in St. Thomas's Hospital, to side 
persons lying there, and to the prisoners lying in chains and fetters 
near to St. George's, Southwark." The Green Dragon, close at 
hand, was the inn or hostel of the family, and is so referred to in 
the will of Joan Cobham. (Map, 12.) 

Soon after the battle of Northampton (wars of the Roses), 1460, 
in which the king was taken prisoner, a very tragic event took 
place hard by the church. The victim was the King's Captain in 
London. I tell it much as the old chronicler does. Lord Scales 
was flying for refuge to Westminstre, probably for sanctuary, but 
was discovered by a woman, and was set upon by the watermen 
of the Counts of Warwick and March, on the river bank, close to 
the wall of the house of the Bishop of Winchestre. He was killed, 
stripp'd, and his body left naked by the portico of the church of 
St. Mary Overy, where it remained exposed for some hours ; but 
was the same day buried by those who knew him, and had before 
been his companions — /. e., by the Earls of Warwick and March 
and others. Another tragic event at our church happened in 
1532 ; this time connected with charity. 

In those old times it was not unusual for persons naturally dis- 
posed to kindness, or for others, who on approaching death were 
seized with terror, and hoped haply to atone for the past by gifts, 
to leave very much in charities. One kind was called a dole, and 
as illustrative of the fatal dole at St. Mary Overy's I note some in- 

* 'Imitation of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein,'— a book which is worth 
a journey to the British Museum to see. 
' Qy. Over'the-re. 



A FATAL DOLE AT ST. SAVIOUR'S. 1 7 

Stances. Joan, Viscountess Lisle, bestowed 300 shirts and smocks fo 
poor folk. The Countess Salisbury, to four score poor men, womer 
and children bedridden, each vj.r. vu]d.^ Stow says : "In m 
youth I remember devout people, especially on Fridays, weekl 
bestowing alms on poor men and women bedridden, lying- withi 
their windows on a bed ; a clean linen cloth and beads lying i 
the window to shew that a bedrid body was there." A parse 
who craved the good will of his fellow -creatures left " one ob 1 
every purman at the kyrk door when the messe es done at h 
byrying." A brewer, not uncommon, leaves " quatuor lagenas c 
meliore servisia pauperibus pro anima mea," &c. A drop of goo 
beer for that purpose ! The crowds so gathered choked the gates ( 
the great monasteries. Sir Thomas More (iSS7) was on one sue 
occasion fain, because of the press of the people, to ride anothe 
way. What happened at St. Mary Overy's was this. A dole Wc 
being distributed at the church ; the crowd was so great that foi 
men, two women, and a boy were smothered" — a fact very sug 
gestive of the state of the poor in 1532, and of the demoralizin 
effect of these doles. 

In 1577 another condition was illustrated at St. Mary Overy' 
This time it was a wizard in trouble. He was apparendy terrifie 
to death. There was much to be said for the wizards ; the pn 
fession of medicine was much mixed up with astrology. Grei 
people, and even the State, dealt with them ; even a Bishop 
Winchester, Home, in 1577 sought their opinion as to a com« 
"God's Judgment" upon Symon Pembroke took place 17 
January, 1577. The ballad says,— 

" Of late in Southwarke there was knowne 

Example of the same 

When Gods owne judgement fell upon 

Simon Pembroke by name. 

He was a noted Conjurer 

livde neare unto the Clinke. 

He was so famous in that place 

to him did folkes resort — 

Within the church the court was held 

St. Saviour's near the bridge." 

' Rock, 'Churchof our Fathers.' 
9 Stow, Chronicle. 



178 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

The death came about in this way. Simon was busy entertaining- 
a proctor. He had money in his hand — significant that — and, 
leaning his head upon a pew wherein the proctor stood, he straight- 
way fell down, rattled a little in his throat, and spoke no more. 
The judge said it was a just judgment of God to those who used 
sorcery, and a great example to admonish others. Now I am 
inclined to do battle as to my parish, St. George's, having a right 
to this man. The ballad says he dwelt, by the Clink; but Hoi - 
Unshed says " he dwelt in St. George's Parish in Southwark, and 
being a figure-flinger, and vehemently suspected to be a conjuror, 
had to appear at the court at St. Saviour's." Now Lilly, the prince 
of this sort of people, was of St. George's. In 1627, the parish 
register notes that this great conjuror married his master's widow. 
Lilly was consulted by high folk, even about State affairs. There 
was also a Simon Read, professor of medicinfe in St. George's, 
who practised invocations and conjurations by wicked spirits — 
Cacodsemones. The names of the wicked spirits with whom he did 
business are given. Read went too far, and was "cast " by the 
College of Physicians in 1602. Kelly, the Sidrophel of ' Hudibras,' 
was a brother of the craft living also in St. George's. My parish 
had a great character for conjurors, and so Pembroke cannot 
be spared. Let this suffice for general illustrations of the old 
ways at St. Mary Overie's. 

I must not overlook the parish bells. The church has been 
always remarkable for its bells, which have their special warden. 
So important was this bell-ringing that gilds were formed for its 
encouragement and practice.^ Very few days could have passed 
by without their music ringing out over Southwark and the river 
and London Bridge. — 1607. Edmund Shakespeare is buried, with 
a forenoon knell of the great bell. — 1608. Lawrence Fletcher, 
with an afternoon knell of the great bell. — 1615. Philip Henslow, 
with the same. At the obsequies of Gardiner the knell began on 
the 13th, at six, and kept ringing on the morrow. On this occa- 
sion there was a knell at every church in London. A rare broad- 
sheet at the Society of Antiquaries tells us the particulars of the 
charges of the churchwardens of St. Saviour's for their Lady Bell, 



Rock. 



ST. saviour's bells and chimes. 179 

their great Bell and their Lesser Bell. The tenor bell rang the 
people to church, — 

" I ring to sermon with a lusty boome 
That all may come and none may slay at home." 

Certain " youths," the college youths, those named of old London, 
of Cumberland, have done great deeds upon these bells. One per- 
formance, March 12th, 1758, was the "greatest ever done on 
twelve bells." Again, a complete peal of Bob Maximus, 6,336, in 
five hours and thirteen minutes — the greatest ever done by this 
method. There were two other performances, 1766, 1784, each 
the greatest performance ever done on twelve bells — of the kind, I 
suppose. In 1424 each bell had its Christian name, and had been 
baptized. In former times the bells had this privilege here ; in some 
countries even now. It is comforting to know that if the bell is pro- 
perly baptized the Evil One flies at the sound of it, and that so far 
as the sound extends is the boundaryline within which the tormenting 
spirit cannot come to disturb the departing soul. Chimes, dials, 
clocks, and weathercocks figure in the Vestry minutes, and notices 
of repairs,^ recastings and the like often occur ; but they need no 
further mention other than this perhaps, that among the numerous 
pictures of the church, one has a prominent sundial on the south 
transept ; in others the antiquated sundial gives place to the clock.^ 
Vestry minutes, i6th November, 1679 : — " A new sundial to be put 
up over against the freeschool." 1689. — " New vanes or weather- 
cocks on the pinnacles." 1691. — "Chimes to be put into good 
tune and condition." 1710. — " John Lade "* warden for the bells. 
The charge then was 2d. for a "passing bell," and "4c?. for an 
hour's knell." 1737.' — The old bells are recast; a faculty is 
obtained for a new peal of twelve. 1 738. — A new clock is ordered, 
the old is not fit, and so on. 

At one time in the south transept was a stained glass window of 

' Wages, 1594, repairs, a master self, i6d. a day, my man lod., labourer lod. 
Vestry Papers. 

» The picture in Maitland has the sundial and no clock ; they used an old 
print of it. Tiler's, 1761, has the clock. The clock was placed in 1735. 

* Sir John Lade was an M.P. for Southwark. This or another of the family 
was chief in a corrupt select vestiy. A kind of parish revolution in St. Saviour's, 
in 1730, got rid of Lade and his people. 

N 2 



l8o OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

some pretensions. No one knows how it went ; but there is a copy 
in the British Museum, copied again in Taylor's ' Annals.' It 
represents three Norman knights : Marshall, Earl of Pembroke ; 
Lacy, Earl of Lincoln ; the third bears the Warren arms, sup- 
posed to be those of Reginald de Warren, a great benefactor of 
the church. In the same collection are arms of other distinguished 
personages, which were once in St. Mary's windows. Of these no 
remains are known. But we know that the church of St. Mary 
Overy was full of illustrious memories. 

A long and interesting bill for repairing the glass in St. Saviour's 
Church is among the parish papers. In the vestry records is a note, 
"2 March 1569 money to Garratt Hone for glazing the church." 
Now, in 18 Henry VIII., 1526, "one Galyen Hoone of St. Mary 
Magdalen next St. Mary Overy Southwark Glasyer," is associated 
with James Nicholson, printer of a first Coverdale Bible, in St. 
Thomas's Hospital parish, also a glasyer, to make and place the 
almost innumerable windows at King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 
which are still there. I have little doubt but that this refers at least 
to the same family name, if not to the same man, in both cases. 

We know there were noted monuments in this church. Most of 
them must have long ago disappeared, and the names also of all 
but a few. We know of the Warrens, among the earliest 
Normans ; the Browns, of the Montague family ; the Brandons, at 
first but fighting people, at length great lords in Southwark ; the 
Audleys, one a lord chancellor to Henry VIII. The palace of the 
Bishops of Winchester was here, so the remains of some of the 
bishops were deposited in the church. In 1579 Home — or part of 
him, his bowels — in the choir. In 1S9S Wm. Wickham, near the 
altar. In 1626 Andrewes, in the eastern chapel. Others of a 
different stamp ; the illiterate employer and patron of the players 
of Shakespeare's time, Philip Henslowe, respectable and shrewd, 
a money-making man of much local note and trust, who fills the 
highest parochial offices, is buried, 16 15, with some honour in the 
chancel : also one of the Shakespeares, Fletcher, and Massinger, 
and many another noted name. I have seen in the church books the 
names of scores of men, women and children, of the players of 
Shakespeare's time. But of these another time. There are other 
records, suggestive of other kinds of people who rested here — the 



JOHN OVERS AND HIS DAUGHTER MARY. l8l 

figure of a knight ; stone coffins, which were in use in the time of 
Henry VIII. ; cadaverous figures, part of a prevailing fancy which 
put death's-heads on rings, or surrounded information and exhor- 
tation in time of sickness with death's-heads and cross-bones ; an 
altar-tomb and canopy and legend of brass, whose not known ; 
well-preserved mummies, found in the great vault in 1817, one of 
them with a bullet-hole in his chest — all of them interesting and 
suggestive.^ One of these is supposed to represent the old ferry- 
man, John Overs, whose daughter was a chief foundress of the 
priory, St. Mary Overs. The whole of the legend looks like a 
mythical representation of facts, and is so, no doubt. A kind of 
chap-book, the ' Life and Death of John Overs,' printed for T. 
Harris, at the Looking Glass, on London Bridge, 1744, is before 
me. It is worth reading, if only to see what people might believe 
of the origin of St. Mary Overy's. Here, in the very words of 
Bartholomew Linsted, the last prior, we read of a ferry just where 
London Bridge afterwards was, — which " ferry was left to Mary, the 
daughter of the ferryman, who, with the great substance left her 
by her parents, and from the daily profits of the ferry, built a house 
of sisters, on the spot where now standeth the east part of St.. 
Mary Overs Church, and where she was afterwards buried. In 
process of time the house of sisters became a college of priests, 
who builded the first London Bridge of timber." Strange changes 
have taken place among the tenants of these tombs. The knight 
was removed to make room for Lockyer, the quack doctor, and his 
grand monument ; Cure for some one else ; one of the old priors 
for a vestry dignitary, Bingham. When death came to multitudes 
through pestilence, and when yet burials were always in and about 
the churches, except when it became a necessity to extemporize 
pits for the purpose, one tenant had to give place to another before 
decay had done with him. " Our churches," says the report of the 
College of Physicians, in 1637, "are overlaid with burials, that 
many times they take up some to make way for new." 

In 1402 Gower was buried here. The poet had been a good 
friend to his old church. About 14OO he had contributed largely 
to the restoration or rebuilding, and with his nurse-wife, to whom 

^ A goodly list is given in Manning and Bray of many titled and distinguished 
people who lived or died hereabout, 



1 82 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

he was married when he was old, retired within the monastery. His 
home was afterwards in the Montague Close. His fine monument, 
lately restored by the munificence of a modern namesake, of the 
noble Gower family, is known by the almost innumerable pictures 
of it. It was Gothic, of three arches, with the statue of the dead 
poet in purple gown, with roses in his hand, and the effigies of his 
great works under his head. The figures of Charity, Mercy, and 
Pity were depicted, each with a device, one Englished thus, — 

" For thy pity, Jesu have Regard, 
And put this Soul in Safegiiard." 
" O good Jesu shew thy Mercy to the Soul whose Body lies here.'' 
And another, — 

"In Thee who art the Son of God the Father, be 
he saved that lyes under this stone. " 

Of his works, the ' Confessio Amantis ' is the principal, and 
is a dialogue between a lover and his confessor. Every evil affec- 
tion tending to clog or impede is noted, and its fatal effects 
exemplified by stories from classics and chronicles. An early copy 
of this work was sold at Sotheby's last year for no less than 175/. 
.In an old book is related how John Gower prepared for his bones 
a resting-place in the monastery of St. Mary Overy in the chapel 
of St. John there, and an obit yearly for his soul was performed 
on the Friday of the Feast of the blessed Pope Saynte Gregorie, 
and 1,500 days of pardon were promised to those who should pray 
for him. Father of English poetry we may call our "moral 
Gower "; but probably no living person, or dead either, perchance, 
has read his three books, the ' Speculum Meditantis,' the ' Vox 
Clamantis,' and the ' Confessio Amantis.' Not the less it was a 
great work in those days. Gower was a fast friend of Chaucer's, 
and that says something for the real character of the writer of the 
free tales of the Canterbury Pilgrimage. In 1 368 Gower acts for 
his friend in his absence, and appears in the courts of law on his 
behalf. Becoming old, and wanting care, he in 1397 procures a 
special marriage licence from William of Wykeham, and in St. 
John's Chapel, St. Mary Overy, marries Agnes Groundolf, and 
makes her his nurse-wife. Soon after he becomes blind. He 
appears to have ample apartments in the priory, and lived there 
to the end of his days ; that is to 1402. The brethren honoured 



MOXUMENTS — GOWER'S, EMERSON'S. 1 83 

their great benefactor with a painted window and the magnificent 
tomb already noticed. In Gower's will, printed at full length," 
bequests appear to the priests and others at St. Mary Overy ; to 
every valet within the gates, 2^. ; to every servant boy, i2d.; 
and 40s. for lights and ornaments for the church. Further, for 
lights and ornaments, and for the parish priests or rectors of St. 
Margaret, St. George, St. Olave, and St. Mary Magdalene, certain 
other sums ; to the hospital of St. Thomas, 40^^. ; to priests, sisters, 
and nurses, other sums, all of them being desired to pray for him. 
For the service of the Chapel of St. John, in which he was buried, 
were left two vestments of silken cloth, one missal, large and new, 
and one new chalice. To Agnes, his wife, 200/., various silver, 
beds and chests, and the furniture of hall, pantry, and kitchen. 
He had then ample apartments and an oratory within the priory. 
Besides the 200/., which would represent of our present money 
some 2,000/. or 3,000/., he, wishing to deal liberally and amicably 
by her, " tunc ipsa libere et pacifice," left her the rents of his 
manors, "Dat infra Prioratum beate Marie de Overes in Sut- 
werke." 

Some other monuments, more or less interesting, may be noted. 
William Emerson, died 1575, who "lived and died an honest man." 
Here is impressively put before us a recumbent figure, a diminutive 
effigy of a man in a winding sheet, emaciated, with the words, 
VT SVM SIC ERIS. He lived to ninety-two ; so, from his own 
point of view, the ghastly memento was scarcely justified. He, 
with Thomas Cure, was among the earliest vestrymen of the 
parish. The name is also noticeable as one of a kindly and muni- 
ficent family. Thomas Emerson's name often appears as a leading 
vestryman, with Humble, and Browker, and Broomfield. The 
grandson, Thomas Emerson, left, in 1620, money to the poor, and 
an estate in Maiden Lane. Humphrey Emerson had before, in 
1603, left money to the poor and a garden platt in Mayd Lane to 
the Grammar School, and to the governors of the school 20^., 
"to make merry with all after my burial." Much more 
might be said of the kindly charity of this family, women and men ; 
this may by-and-by be comprised in the charities of Southwark. 

« Taylor's ' Annals of St. Mary Overy,' p. 79. 



1 84 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Thomas Cure, buried here in 1588, was a local magnate of the 
highest class. He was warden of the parish. His name stands 
among others for his own parish in the conveyance from the 
authorities of St. Margaret's — BuUe and others — to the authorities 
of St. Mary Magdalen Overy, the two parishes to be henceforward 
one — St. Saviour's. Thomas Bulla, or Bulley, yeoman of the Crown, 
one of the King's guard, churchwarden of St. Margaret's, also the 
member for Southwark in i S 36, was one of the St. Margaret's people. 
Thomas Cure, the sadler, was member for South wark in 1562-3, and 
again in 1570-71 j in 1585-6, a warden of St. Saviour's and a chief 
in parish affairs, he with others represented his parish in that 
transaction. Evidently he was a good as well as a prudent man, 
dwelling apparently in the outworks of religion, where people were 
not harried and burnt ; and so he contrived to purvey the saddles, 
or perform his duty, whatever it was, for three such different people 
as Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. So that he seated them 
properly, he does not appear to have gone out of his way to court 
persecution or to manifest offensively his especial belief, if he had 
any. His name appears with especial consideration and respect 
in my MS. notes of St. Thomas's Hospital, 1569 to 1574. Noted one 
week, — " a remembrance for Mr. Cure " ; another for the prompt 
removal of a nuisance which annoyed him. After serving Edward, 
he served Mary ; and, whether "Vicar of Bray" or no, he served 
Elizabeth also. The confidence of the latter in him is shown 
strongly enough in his being appointed, in 1584, as one of four 
commissioners to search the houses in St. Mary Overies Close for 
Papists. It is shown — Dom. Eliz., 1584, Public Records — how he 
found fifteen persons in Mr. Browne's house, in the close ; in another 
house a servant to "Sir Phillipp Sidney"; in another "Mary 
More and Grace More, Drs. of Thomas More, prisoner in Ihe Mar- 
shalsea"; and how he visited Mr. Trehearne's house, on the Bank- 
side. At the dissolution one of the possessions of Waverley Abbey 
— Waverley House close by those of Rochester and "Winchester — 
passed to the Brownes or Montagues, as most of the possessions of 
the religious houses in this corner did. Thomas Cure turned this 
condition of things to such good account that now, in our day, his 
bequest is a large and liberal parish charity. Here is the testimony 
of his friends and neighbours : " 1621, It is ordered by the Vestry 



THOJIAS CURK. 185 

that a fitting inscription is to be set over the new Gate leading into 
the College churchyard in Deadman's Place, that ' Thomas Cure 
was a good benefactor in building the said College andAlmshouses.' " 
It is a pity, if it be true, that the Charity Commissioners have done 
away with this modest testimony. A Cambridge friend has favoured 
me with the following version of the inscription, which is far too 
good to be omitted. There must have been some humour about 
the man, if he had to do with his own epitaph, in which is a play 
upon his name, variously inflected, as Cure, Curus, Cura, Curo. 
Elegy on Thomas Cure, of Southwark, Esquire : " Cure, whom yon . 
stone covers, served thee, Elizabeth, as master of the saddle-horses. 
He served King Edward, and Mary his sister. To have had the 
favour of three sovereigns is a great glory. He lived beloved with 
all. The state was ever a care to Cure ; the welfare of the people 
was (a care) while he lived. He provided that for the maintenance 
of old men houses should be assigned, to meet the disbursements 
of money his yearly doles." ' He died on the 24th -of May, a.d. 
1588. The lands and tenements of the Abbot of Waverley, next 
Winchester House, forfeited at the dissolution, and granted to Sir 
Anthony Brown, were granted by Lord Montague, a Browne, to 
Mr. Cure for the purposes of his college. The ordinances of the 
charity, published from the old copy by the parish, is a formidable 
and interesting document. The partakers of his charity were to be 
elected by parsons, of whatsoever name called, but actually in- 
cumbent and resident, and by churchwardens, and twelve of the 
" aunscientest and discreetest vestrymen, if there shalbee any suche." 
The method may be inferred from a vestry entry, June 20, 1625 : 
" This day Thomas Bromley who coulde saye the Lord's prayer 
the Creede and the tenn comaundments was chosen by general 
consent to be one of the college." As a gloss upon this, Latimer, 
in one of his wonderful sermons upon the Lord's prayer, says, "Whan 
we bee disposed to despise a man and call hym an ignoraunt foole, 
we say, he cannot say his paternoster." The test was, therefore, 
according to the usages of the time, in every way appropriate. 

We have a handsome tomb to the memory of the Humbles ; 
chiefly to Richard, d. 1616, and Margaret, his first wife. Behind 

1 The original, in Latin, is in Tiler's ' .St. Saviour's, ' p. 29. 



1 86 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

these kneeling figures is one of a younger and, indeed, jaunty- 
looking woman — Isabel, his second wife. The Humbles were busy, 
prominent people. Richard was an alderman of London, and 
foremost in the affairs of St. Saviour's parish. To some extent they 
were charitable ; but as it consisted of charges, and not a growing 
estate, the amount is now as it was — about 5/. The inscription duly 
sets forth the small charity and the family proceedings as to wives 
and children, and who the wives were. The tomb was to be kept 
clean, and 4^. a year was left for the purpose. The parish has 
done its duty, and Humble, with his humble bequest, is well kept 
in mind ; while the name of Cure, with his princely charity, is 
nearly blotted out. Humble's tomb is noted for the very quaint 
lines, "Like to the damask rose you see"; possibly Quarles's, 
but probably common property. Similar lines of Beaumont's 
appear; and, with slight variations, they were adopted in the 
memento mori broadsheets of the time. These sheets were orna- 
mented with black borders, death emblems, &c., circulated to the 
terror of the nervous, and no doubt to the frightening to death a 
large number of people. The actual inscription is in Tiler and 
Taylor ° and other accounts of the parish. This broadsheet ver- 
sion " is nearly word for word with it : — 

' ' Like to the Damask Rose you see, 
Or like the blossom on the tree, 
Or like the dainty flower of May, 
Or like the morning to the day, 
Or like the sun, or lilce the shade, 
Or like the gourd that Jonas had — 
Even such is man, whose thrced is spun, 
Drawn out and cut, and so is done," &c. 

Even this memento mori was parodied in the ballads of the period.^ 
Richard Humble's name appears prominently in the vestry pro- 
ceedings of the parish. In 1593 it stands with those of Bromfield, 
Brooker, and Emerson. In 1598 he is appointed, with others, to 

» ' St. Saviour's.' 

» "Lord, have mercy upon us." A black-letter broadsheet, 1636. British 
Museum, ^^ 

' ' Pretty Comparisons.' Roxburghe Ballads, by W. Chappell, F.S.A. "Like 
to a pistol and no shot," &c, 



OTHER MONUMENTS, ST. SAVIOUR'S. 1 8/ 

petition the Council that the playhouses might be pulled down. 
Of little effect, as almost immediately after the noted playhouse 
people, Henslowe and Alleyn, take a lead at the vestry. The 
family name does not seem to have influenced Richard Hunible, as 
in 1600 he — a great person at the vestry — offers to lay a wager 
that the parish will not get its dues from Lord Montague, Mr. 
Langley, and others, and he calls the churchwardens " Knaves and 
Rascalles." It appears that he was an ancestor of the .family of 
Dudley and Ward.^ 

The monument of the Trehearnes. John, died 16 18, was chief 
gentleman porter to James I., as his son, who also was buried here, 
was chief clerk of the kitchen. The wife Margaret, who lived 
some twenty-seven years after her husband, and the children, are 
represented on the tomb. The epitaph implies that Trehearne died 
because his master the king was powerless against the greater 
King, but that he passed from one king's court to a greater in 
heaven. 

John Symons, a white baker of London, ob. 1625. His monu- 
ment is of black marble, with the inscription, " Monumentum Viri 
Justi," — particularly well to be mentioned as a set-off against the 
charges against the bakers and the remarkably severe sentences 
against the unjust among them, — 

"To live and die well was his whole endeavour- 
He in assurance dy'd to live for ever, '' 

He left money for the poor of St. Saviour's, St. George's, and St. 
Mary Newington. 

John Bingham, saddler to Elizabeth and James, died 1625. 
His remains rested where before was placed a prior of St. Mary's. 
He gave the lamp acre and a windmill in St. George's Fields, of 
some benefit to his native parish, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, of 
little to St. Saviour's, so that at length it was handed over to St. 
Martin's for lOo/.' 

Susannah Barford, died 1652, set. ten years and thirteen weeks. 
" The nonsuch of the world for piety and vertue in soe tender 
yeares." The monument was adorned with a death's-head and 

' Taylor, 'Annals of St. Mary Overy, ' p. 1 00. 



1 88 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

cross-bones on one side, and a winged hourglass at the other, and 

under, these charming words, — 

" And death and envye both must say twas fitt 
Her memoiy should thus in brass be writt. 
Here lyes interr'd within this bed of dust 
A virgin pure not stain'd by carnall lust : 
Such grace the King of Kings bestowd upon her 
That now shee lives with him a maid of honour. 
Her stage was short, her thread was quickly spunn 
Drawne out, and cutt, got heaven, her worke was done. 
This world to her was but a traged play 
Shee came and saw 't, dislik't, and pass'd away." 

The arrangement of some of the letters in this inscription is 
noticeable; for instance, DRAWNE OVT, AND CVT. 

A tablet of black marble is here to Mrs. Margaret Maynard, 
who died 1653, aged thirteen years, ten months, and fourteen days, 
says the very accurate inscription. 

Originally in the south aisle of the choir was a spacious 
monument of stone, adorned with two pilasters with comish and 
pediment ; between the pilasters a rock, whereon was an angel 
pointing toward the sun, with the motto " Sol Justitiae " ; out of the 
rock issues a stream. There is a scroll with Petra erit Xtus, 
alluding to our Saviour, who is here styled a Rock ; and the stream 
of blood from His side, whereby the thirst of all believers is 
quenched. A snake, as emblem of the serpent lifted up in the 
wilderness. The motto " Nemo sine Cruce Beatus." Much more 
may be read in Tiler and Taylor. William Austin, gentleman, 
whose stony pageant all this is, died January i6th, 1633, set. 47. 
He appears to have been fanciful and sensational — what we now 
call morbid. He wrote Divine meditations on particular subjects, 
as, for instance, the Conception, and on persons, as St. Thomas. 
He wrote " The Authors owne Funerall made upon Himselfe," 
the motto a text in these words : — " Mine age is departed and 
removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a 
weaver my life ; he will cut me off with pining sickness : from day 
even to night wilt thou make an end of me." In this discourse, 
referring to his first wife and children, he says, " The fellow of my 
bed, the playfellows of my house, the joy of my heart, and comforts 
of my life are either clean gone or much impaired ; I am indeed 



Austin's monument. 189 

but half alive, and half dead, for (like a blasted tree) half my 
body (the more loved part) is dead, and half my branches (the 
youngest and tenderest) are withered, cut off and buried with her." 
As a tribute to the living- wife, it must not be forgotten that she, 
after her husband's death, published this exordium upon her pre- 
decessor. Depressing as his tendencies were, he seems to have 
been favoured of women. It is so sometimes : the interestingly 
unsociable draw sympathy. Not to be wondered at, for — another 
reason — he seemed very much to admire them, as his little 
" essaie " "on the excellency of the creation of women ' ' proves. 
The engraved title-page of his meditations is a work to be thought 
over. Eleven little pictures, each embodying the subject of a 
meditation — the Conception, the Crucifixion, and the like. Below 
is his portrait on a small oval, standing on steps, and below, on 
each side, a skeleton sitting. In his Epicedium, quaintly, but in 
the same vein, he says, " Shall we 

" Grieve to lay downe them Rags, for earth to keepe, 
That we a while may take a Nap of Sleepe ? " 

Here, from the same, is something perhaps of a little better 
quality, — 

" Change but this aire, and think upon thy end, 
Thy sinne will lessen and thy soule will mend. 
For as at sea when clouds i^ut out the stars 
^^^len winds from heaven, and waves from earth makes wars, 
And mad brain'd saylors, all the decks orewhelme, 
The Pilot (sadly sitting at the helme) 
Better directs the ship, where it should goe 
Than all their wUd endeavours can, — Ev'n so 
(When through the world's dark storms, to heaven we tend 
One quiet pilot sitting at the end) 
One thought of death, our course more, right doth guide 
Than all the vaine workes of our life beside." 

Some monuments in the church were of the same allegorical cast 
as this, — notably Gower's with its figures and mottoes. Sutton, who 
squabbled with Field, the actor, worked in the same tone. His 
' Christian Jewell ' had for title-page a counterpart of Austin's, 
even to the little pictures of the Circumcision, Baptism, &c., and 
with an oval of Sutton,—" The patterne of a Pastour true." Mr. 
Austin, and the Lady Joyce Clark, his mother, go together in the 



IQO OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

token books in paying those dues. This family were friends of 
Alleyn, who, in accord with kindly custom, sends a New Year's gift 
of silk stockings to Lady Clark and Mr. and Mrs. Austin. Stow 
records that " the Lady Clark, mother to Master William Austin, 
gave a very fair communion table, railed about, where sixty may 
kneel to receive the sacrament, with a fair carpet for it, and 
the rails hung about with the same, embroidered; and Master 
William Austin gave a fair silver chalice and a dish for the bread 
to the value of almost 40/. Further, his wife that now is, the 
relict of John Bingham, Esq., gave two very fine silver flagons of 
the like value." Thus far for these kindly people. 
Of less demand upon my space is Gerrard, 

" Who did the church frequent whilst he had Breath, 
And wished to lie therein after his Death." 

He was of the Grocers' Company ; hence the quasi-fitness of the 
words, — 

' ' Weep not for him, since he has gone before 
To Heaven, where Grocers there are many more. " 

John Hayman, died 1626, he came to the rescue of the Lady 
Chapel from the bakers and their pigs, and helped to make it a 
place of worship again, paving at his own cost one of the aisles. 

Robert Buckland, died 1625, noted only for the common inscrip- 
tion, — 

" My course so short, the longer is my rest. 
God takes those soonest whom he loves the best ; 
For he that 's born to-day and dies to-morrow 
Loseth some time of rest, but more of son-ow." 

Lancelot Andrewes, a man of great influence and distinction, a 
master in his time, was buried in the little eastern chapel, which 
was hence called the Bishop's Chapel. The tomb, of which there 
are many pictures, was of black and white marble, with an image 
of a Prelate of the Garter in his robes. The bishop had been 
successively Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Chichester, and, as 
the chronicler says, was translated to Ely in 1609, and was then 
almoner;— to Winchester in i6t8, being Dean of the Chapel Royal 
and Prelate of the Order of the Garter. " Thence translated to 
Heaven on the 21 September, 1626." He died in his palace of 
Winchester House, close at hand. A very fine portrait of him, by 



BISl-IOP ANDREWES. I9I 

Hollar, is to be had; and there are others. It must be said of him 
that he was a most pious and learned prelate, to be ranked with 
the best preachers and completest scholars of his time. He may 
have been attractive in the pulpit, being- a man of lively conversa- 
tion and abounding in wit ; but the Latin quotations, and the often 
trivial wit, taking sometimes the form of puns, do not now in reading 
them tell much for him. He is said to have understood fifteen 
languages, and, creditably, that all his preferments became 
the better through him. Fascinating, the great scholar Casaubon, 
who lodged with him, could not tear himself away from his friend ; 
their time spent in literary and theological discussions, — no doubt 
somewhat pedantic, he suited his master, James, and could talk 
and pun with him to his satisfaction. In the sermons of the time, 
when a hit was made, applause was not unusual, and was, indeed, 
often waited for. It is said that in Bishop Andrewes's sermons such 
stops may be discovered.' One witty passage I may note : " Pilate 
asked, ' What is truth ? ' and then some other matter took him in 
the head, and so up he rose and went his way before he had his 
answer. He deserved never to find what truth was." If he 
paused upon this passage, I can quite fancy the audible hum of 
assent and admiration which followed. We may, however, be 
permitted sometimes to regret the doings of even very good men. 
It appears to have been so with Andrewes. He was the master of 
Laud — might almost be said to have been, as to Laud, what we 
now call a wire-puller. He seems to have held by the distin- 
guishing points of the Romish Church. He believed in the real 
presence; that ministers have the two keys of knowledge and 
power ; that whose sins soever they remit are remitted in heaven. 
He desired auricular confession. He died a bachelor, and, from his 
epitaph in Winchester Cathedral, may be supposed to have obtained 
a higher reward in heaven on account of this abstinence. A joint 
letter of James and Andrewes, in the epistles of Casaubon, seems 
to prove that, had it been convenient, these two were quite ready 
to go over to Rome.^ I may adopt the words of an authority : 
" No one in the English Church seems to have contributed so much 

' Notes and Queries. 

" Lord Aeton, Times, Nov. 24tli, 1874. 



192 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

toward the relapse into superstition as Andrewes, Bishop of Win- 
chester, the founder of the school in which Laud was the most 
prominent disciple." " He may fairly be held as a saint and father 
by the ritualists of the present day. He was, however, apparently 
more prudent than these modern followers of his are, and did not, 
at least, himself sacrifice the solid and the weighty for comparative 
trivialities. 

One stone in the church is to a Brewer who had married a 
Rundel, 1 569, and records quaintly, — 

" Under this stone lies three, 
Joined by consanguinity. 
The father he did lead the way ; 
The sons made haste, and could not stay : 
The eldest son the next did go, 
The youngest son could not say no ; 
But as they did receive their breath, 
So did they go away from earth. " 

To soften the rhyme, it must be said that in some west-country 
places now it is not unusual to pronounce earth, aath. 

The Overmans, connected with the Shaws. One of them, Alice 
Shaw Overman, having married an Overman, is further known 
by a liberal foundation of almshouses, and as an owner of Mon- 
tague Close and other property near. James Shaw, died 1670. His 
name stands in this year for a gift of lOOl. In the vestry pro- 
ceedings of 1 67 1 is noted Alice Shaw's gift ; and again, as evidence 
of her great desire to have everything done decently and in order, 
she gives " of her own free will a large velvet pall, edged with 
white sarsenet." Apparently connected with this, and a few days 
after, is an order of vestry that parishioners using pall, capp, and 
gowns shall pay ioj., and strangers not of the parish i^s. One 
of this family, a saintly woman, and much loved, has the tribute of 
a small volume to her memory. ' A sermon made, but no sermon 
preached, at the funerall of the right vertuous Mrs. Mary Over- 
man.' A noted preacher of the time, Benjamin Spencer, now 
ejected, was seized by soldiers to prevent what to the powers then 
uppermost were objectionable rites. Preacher at St. Thomas's, 
and a loyalist, he was sequestered and imprisoned. His sermon, 

° Green, and Hallam similarly. 



THE OVERMANS AND LOCKYER. 193 

* Live Well and Die Well,' which could not be delivered, was printed, 
1646, and accompanied by ' Memoriale Sacrum : a speech written, 
not spoken, by her sorrowfull husband, Thomas Overman ' ; and 
in it he refers to the prevention of the rites by those of the " factious 
conventicle." " But," he says, " God forgive them (I doe) this 
unseasonable malice to my dearest spousesse, whose death gave 
life to this funeral sermon." The condition of affairs just now will 
be known by the facts that at this very time Fairfax was be- 
leaguering Oxford, Leicester had just been stormed — John Bunyan 
was fighting in the ranks, and was taken prisoner there — and the 
King, Charles L, was being driven from place to place.' 

I have now to note the remarkable monument of a famous 
empiric of the time of Charles II., or, as he calls himself, Lionel 
Lockyer, licensed physician and chemist. In the vestry proceedings 
of 7th February, 1672, the wardens approve the proposition of the 
executors, and permit the erection of the monument ; and, as old 
things give place to new, no less than so distinguished a resident 
as the remains of an old knight, possibly a founder, have to give 
place to the great pill-maker. There was no unbecoming modesty 
in his epitaph. 

" His fame speaks few competitors ; it may scorn 
Inscriptions which do vulgar tombs adorn. 
His virtues and his pills are so well known 
That envy can't confine them under stone ; 
But they '11 survive his dust, and not expire 
Till all things else, at the universal fire — 
This verse is lost — his Pill embalms him safe 
To future times without an epitaph. " 

" He deceased April 26th, a.d. 1672, aged seventy-two." It would 
no doubt vex his spirit to know that, desiring to be practical at a 
lecture I was giving at the Borough Road College, I took some 
trouble to obtain some of his pills to exhibit, not internally, on that 
occasion. But no one in the trade had heard of them. All memory 
of the famous pills had altogether disappeared. The likeness of 
the doctor, prefixed to his advertisement concerning these most 
excellent pills, might almost be taken, in long wig and facial expres- 
sion, for Charles II. The name of the pills is enough : " Pilute 

6 Thomas Carlyle, 'Cromwell.' 



194 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Radiis Solis extractee." The tract of advertisements, published 
1670, is very perfect, and might be a model to modern advertisers 
of pills. The " courteous reader ' ' is informed that, " by the blessing 
of God (from whom alone cometh every good and perfect gift)," 
Lockyer had been successful in curing maladies that had become 
the shame of physicians ; and this he did by long study and many 
experiments. " Taken early in the morning, two or three in number 
preserves against contagious airs." " Sometimes by degrees, some- 
times suddenly, even to amazement, they vanquish all m.anner of 
distempers." They will cure ; but also " they that are well and 
desire to be so, let them take the pills once a week." " The medi- 
cine will keep an hundred years." " Chirurgeons in ships and in 
camp should provide themselves." He lived until seventy-two ; 
and how came this about ? "I take the pills once in a week, 
though I am not troubled with any disease, only for my health's 
sake." "The goodness of God," "the blessing of God," is on 
every page— five times on page 4. How necessary it is not to 
boast ! The doctor died almost immediately after he published this 
exordium. Seventy-five cases are given, from the man who thought 
ill of them after one box, and would not go on, but was prevailed 
upon, and was marvellously cured; the senseless opposition of 
this man at first vexed the doctor. All such, he says, should let 
alone his pills, and keep their money and their diseases too. The 
seventy-fourth case was " Mr. Hammond, of Chesham, left in- 
curable, but was cured of a Regement of diseases, as Surfeit, 
Dropsy, Scorbute, and only by these pills." "The price of a 
whole box was 4s. ; half a box, 2s." — that is, " according to their 
bigness." And to prevent mistake or deceit, the box — a " latten 
box" — was wrapped in white paper, and sealed with the doctor's 
arms, three Boars' Heads, and the arms of Thomas Fyge, which 
are six Flower de Luces and three Spur Rowels. They are— that 
is, were— sold by Tho. Fyge, at the Sugar Loaf, without Bishops- 
gate, and by John Watts, in St. Thomas's, Southwark, which last 
was his nephew, and operator in his house. To revive these pills, 
and reprint the pamphlet, might make a fortune even now. In 
the Guildhall Library is a picture of Lockyer on horseback among 
a crowd of people, and his man selling the pills. As empirics and 
mountebanks now and then got into trouble, it is probable that the 




PORTRAIT OF 



QUEEN Elizabeth, 



n^o^ ANCIENT BALLAD?^ PHI1,0NIBL0N ,«>OCJlF,Tr. 
HUTH COLLECTION. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S PORTRAIT. 195 

name " Lionel Locker," a prisoner in the White Lion, refers to 
this man. 

This rather elaborate, if not tedious, notice of the locally illus- 
trious dead, of so many different shades of character, will no doubt 
suffice. 

A monument of the dead of another type must be noted. It was 
common to put up a picture of the Queen Elizabeth in the churches, 
with laudatory verses. The poets had exercised their fancy and 
loyalty on the theme. Shakespeare's " Fair vestal thronfed in the 
west." Spenser's' 

" O where shall I in all antiquity 
So faire a patterne finde, where may be seene 
The goodly praise of princely curtesie 
As in yourself, O Soveraine Lady Queene ? " 

A contemporary broadside, with a careful portrait of the Queen, 
has these lines ' : — 



" Loe here the pearle, 

Whom God and man doth loue : 
Loe here on earth 

The onely starre of light : 
Loe here the queene, 

Whom no mishap can moue 
To chaunge her mynde 

From vertues chief delight ! 



' Loe here the heart 

That so hath honord God, 
That, for her loue. 

We feele not of his rod : 
Pray for her health. 

Such as good subjectes bee : 
Oh Princely Dame, 

There is none like to thee ! " 



A proclamation, undated and in draft, in the State Paper Office is 
noted, prohibitingf payntors, pryntors, and gravors from drawing- 
the Queen's picture until some mete person shall first make a 
natural representation of Her Majesty's person as a pattern ; this 
was " probably never issued." Our portrait was put forth, in 1552, 
by a celebrated ballad printer, Richard Lant. Here, in St. 
Thomas's, Southwark, and elsewhere was the Queen's portrait, with 

verses : — 

" St. Peter's Church, in Westminster, 
Her sacred Body doth inter ; 

' ' Faery Queen, ' 6th book. 

" Huth Collection, Philobiblon Society, from which, with Mr. Huth's consent, 
the happy portrait published with this book . is taken. ' ' The ' Pycture of quene 
Elyzabeth ' was entered to Gyles Godhed in the books of the Stationers' Company 
1562-3, "perhaps republished from 1552, 

3 



196 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Her Glorious Soul with Angels sings, 
Ilcr deeds live Patterns here for Kings ; 
Her love in eveiy heart hath room ; 
This only shadows forth her Tomb."' 

St. Michael Bassishaw : — 

" Queen Elizabeth both was and is alive — what more can be said ? — 
In Heaven a Saint, on earth a blessed maid." 

Alas for even such glory as this ! The following is an entry in 
the vestry proceedings, St. Saviour's, 21st July, 1699: "Ordered, 
that Queen Elizabeth's picture, at the east of that part of our 
church formerly the parish church of St. Mary Magdalen Overy, 
be taken down, and the place made good " ; and they coolly pro- 
ceeded on to the report as to the state of the house by the Park 
Gate. Here for the time I take leave of St. Saviour's, Southwark. 

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD AND ASSOCIATIONS OF 
ST. SAVIOUR'S. 

Looking at our map, we see St. Saviour's Church in the midst 
of a space, bounded north by " Peper ally " (Map, 6), south by 
" the foule lane " (Map, 19), east by the King's highway, with 
its chain gate (Map, 10), west by the space before Winchester 
House, with its chain gate (Map, 9). This comprises the church- 
yard and a little more. The chain gates are noted in passing, as 
indicating one of the common open boundaries of the time, chains 
and posts, e. g., St. Paul's Chain and the like. 

In January, 1555, there came from the Clink,^ through these 
chain gates, two of the noblest men known in English history. 
Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, to be done to death at Gloucester, 
and Rogers, the father of our English Bible, to Smithfield, for the 
same dreadful purpose. The actors on the other side in this 
tragedy were the Lord Chancellor Gardiner, the Bishops of 
Durham, Ely, Worcester, Chichester, and Carlyle, the Lord William 
Ploward, Lord Paget, Sir R. Southwell, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord 
Anthony Montague, and Secretary Bourne. These men sat in 

" Stow, 1720, vol. ii. p. 13. 

' A prison, belonging to the Bishop's liberty of the Clink, situate immediately 
north-west of the Bishop of Winchester's palace and grounds. 



MARTYRS AT ST. MARY OVERY's. 1 97 

Winchester House and in the church of St, Mary Overy, and 
before them were brought on one occasion the preachers, Bishop 
Hooper, Crome, Tomson, Rogers, and divers others, in all eleven.^ 
On another occasion a great multitude was present, some 300 
people in the church ; on another, animated by the same spirit as 
these judges were, as the ancient Roman people at their shows 
were, and as the modern Spaniards at theirs, the people's appetite 
whetted for cruelty, they cry out, when the examination of one 
became tedious, " Away with him, and bring us another." It was 
a great public sensational show ; the church, and even the adjoining 
street was often full of people, drawn together to see what was going 
on. The proceedings seem to have been made as harassing to the 
accused as might be ; on the last occasion Hooper and Rogers 
are brought from the Compter^ in Southwark, at nine in the 
morning, condemned, and then sent to the Clink. In the 
evening, after dark, they were, with due guard of bills and other 
weapons, brought out thence, through the Bishop's house, across 
the churchyard into Southwark, and over the bridge to Newgate ; 
Master Hooper going before with one of the sheriffs, and Master 
Rogers coming after with the other ; the " cruel sheriff," Wood- 
roffe probably, and Chester the other, both names figuring among 
the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital. Hooper looking back, 
and'as Rogers drew near, saying " Come, Brother Rogers, must 
we, too, take the matter in hand, and fry these faggots ? " " Yea, 
by God's grace," said Rogers ; " doubt not but that God will give 
us strength." So they went forward amid the press of people in 
the streets, the way lighted with torches. Hooper, a great and 
diligent preacher, and one of the truest of men, yet in the opinion 
of even his admirers unduly punctilious in small matters, such as 
the priestly dress. Rogers was Matthew, his assumed name as 
the editor of that English Bible which has become the type and 
model of all since. This I have noted more at large under " Saint 
Thomas's Hospital." 

Within and without the barriers known as the chain 

- Jlaitland, Strype. 

' The Compter, a prison established on the site of the old St. Margaret's 
Church, opposite the Tabard, destroyed in the great fire of 1676. 



198 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

gates were houses and shops, some named in the map. The 
token-books of St. Saviour's* notice about thirty persons living 
within the " cheyne gate." Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, who 
figured on the cruel side in the religious persecutions, one of the 
judges at St. Mary Overies in ISSS, lodged, when he came to 
London, by the chain gate. In 1600 is an entry in the parish 
minutes as to a tenement in the churchyard, called the Windmill. I 
especially note this because Taylor'' speaks of it as a windmill in 
the churchyard, which it was not. March 21, 1599, "The doures 
from the Windmill into the churchyard are to be made up again, 
and no more water to be brought out of the Windmill and poured 
out in the churchyard." This, with a matter-of-course dunghill by 
my Lord Montague's, paints for us the filthy locality, which now 
and then exercises the minds of the not too fastidious vestrymen. 
The dead of the parish were buried hereabout, and the air must 
often have been reeking with pestilential vapours. One little 
churchyard is filled, another spot close at hand is taken in and 
filled in its turn, and so on, as the dead gradually become too 
many for the living. In 1573, the churchyard is enclosed with a 
substantial pale. 1 594, " the new churchyard.' ' 1 620, " the church- 
yard within the chain gate." The Vestry seem to be often looking 
about for burial places, and they always select ground close at 
hand. Curiously illustrative of the subject is a broadsheet in the . 
collection of the Society of Antiquaries, which I was permitted to 
copy, the date, 161 3. It is a rate of duties put forth by the Cor- 
poration of the churchwardens of the parish of St. Saviour's South- 
wark, that is, of charges for burial, which are as follows : — " In 
any churchyard next the church, with a coffin, 2j. 2>d. ; without a 

■* Token-books from 1598 to 1630 still remain among the parish papers of St. 
Saviour's, except some of the Shakespearean time, which are lost. They are 
rough books, comprising the names of persons, the places in which they live, and 
the amount of token-money paid by each. They appear to come out of a house to 
house visitation, for the purpose of admitting, perhaps forcing, people to the 
sacrament. Among the names in these token-books are many of distinguished 
actors and writers contemporaiy with Shakespeare. I have seen about twenty, 
many of them named in the first edition of the plays published by Heminge and 
Condell.in 1623. 

' 'Annals of St. Mary Oveiy,' p. 129, 



PESTILENTIAL AIR ABOUT THE CHURCHES. I $9 

coffin, 20d. For a child, with, Sd.; without, ^d. The CoUedge 
churchyard, with, i2d.; without, 8d.," and so on. 

In 1698, " the Bull Head churchyard, by the south door of the 
church." In 1703, a large vault for burial is to be made in the 
middle aisle of the church, and, showing the ignorance still existing, 
" ihe same very well liked arid approved of.^'^ In 1726, the Bull 
Head churchyard, if not so clean as it might be, is in future to be 
cleansed twice a week, the salary for this work 40^. a year. In 
1 78s burials are going on freely and simultaneously in the College 
yard, in the Church, in the Bull or Green churchyard, and in the 
new churchyard. The fees always appear a prominent question in 
all places. This source of income belonging to the clergy was, no 
doubt, one great nail that so long fixed upon us the dreadful prac- 
tice of burying in and about our churches. It became an affair of 
"rights" and of "revenue." In 1793, Robert Kent, an eminent 
surgeon, speaks of the smells and danger of the great vault which 
had been " so well liked and approved of." It is accordingly 
ordered that scientific men shall examine and report upon it. I 
make no apology for coming down later than the time in discussing 
this great question of burials and health. 

In 1676, after the great fire, things are in general disorder. 
Posts and bars are to be put up at the west chain gate, to keep 
bullocks and horses out of the churchyard. Lock-posts are wanted 
after that, the beasts still coming into the churchyard. In 167 1 
racks, hooks, and spikes, for hanging up meat within the chain 
gate, trouble the vestrymen. I am led on to show troubles of the 
same sort, coming down much later on. In 17 18 it is ordered that 
no part about the chain gate shall be let to any who incumber or 
stop up with herbs. A door is noted as leading to the gate from 
a slaughter-house ; but this is nothing. There is a " house of 
office," which actually empties itself into the channel of the gate- 
way. " The chain gates in the church way " figure in the ' New 

^ The parish to which I was ofEcer of heakh, St. George's, close at hand, was 
quite as bad or worse, for in the course of my 'duties I had to arrange for the 
effectual burial of several hundred coffins . I shall not soon forget my walk along 
the narrow path in. the church vaults, with coffins piled on either side, six or 
seven, one over the other. There had long been vents from these well-filled 
vaults directly into the church. 



200 



OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS l^EOPLE. 



Remarks of London,' by the Parish Clerks, 1732. In my own 
earlier time respectable old-fashioned houses,some with gable fronts, 
some with garret windows on sloping roofs, abut on the church- 
yard. It was almost a semi-fashionable haunt of noted doctors. 
So late as fifty years ago, facing the church, south, was the 
grammar school founded by Queen Elizabeth, of which there are 
many pictures in Wilkinson and elsewhere. Now these ghosts of 
the past are effectually laid by the new London Bridge purlieus 
and the ever-increasing Borough Market. 

The way to the Banck (Map, 16) is very suggestive to those who 
know what Bankside and Paris Garden meant. Passing behind 
the Bishop of Winchester's house and grounds ; by the stream 
afterwards called the sewar, selecting one of the small bridges 
over it (the old maps give several) ; by the cucking stool j by the 
Clink Prison, we arrive at " the Banck." The Globe and other 
theatres, properly so called, were not yet. But at Paris Garden, 
on the Banck, and in the High Street there were bear-baiting and 
other rude sports from very early times ; and generally there was 
much lively and somewhat loose work going on about the riverside. 
Our road was one way to it, the chief way being the river and the 
numerous boats ever going to and fro. In the way to the Banck 
was now and then to be seen in actual operation the punishment of 
the Cucking Stool. 

These illustrations 
will show both the 
place and the me- 
thod. This scrap 
from the ' Countrey- 
man's Guide" indi- 
cates the exact spot 
behind Winchester 
House. The other 
cut represents, pro- 
bably, one of the 
" Sisters of the 
Banck," or "light 



IS.Sarioim 







\' 



' Map, UmJ>, Charles I,, Guildhall Libvaiy. 



THE CUCKlNG STOOL, PILLORY, AND CAGE. 



ioi 



Huswife of the Bankside," in trouble, and is a rough pictorial 
heading of a rigmarole story of St. George's Fields.^ One is 
fixed, the other movable. In Bankside society, probably, both 
might be needed ; and no doubt the Bishop's officer had enough 
to do. 

Foule Lane — 
Fowle, Foul, or 
Ffowle in the 
varying nomen- 
clature of the 
time. According 
to the practice 
of our forefathers, 
the most obvious 
characteristic of 
the way, however 
immoral, however 
offensive, was made clear by the name.' Foul Lane (Map, 17-19) 
extended from the High Street, in Long Southwark, and took the 
passenger on his " way to the Banck." It was not much additional 
danger to St. Thomas's Hospital that Foul Lane was exactly oppo- 
site its gate, albeit the high road was much narrower than now ; 
for indeed open ditches, dirty wharves, swarming with pigs and 
houses of office, were everywhere about so late as the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, and very many later, even down to my 
own early recollection. At one end of Foul Lane was the Pillory and 
Cage (Map, 24), at the other the Bishop of Rochester's town house, 
side by side almost with the great palace of the Bishops of Win- 
chester. In the great fire of 1676 the houses here were most of 




« ' Catalogue of Chap-Books,' by J. O. Halliwell. 

^ So not far off was Sluts' Well, Thieves' Lane ; and very close at hand was 

,. , implying a veiy loose "nest" indeed. The Act to hold a market, so 

late as 1 7SS, names the boundaries of the new market thus : A convenient place in 
a spot called the Triangle, abutting on a place called the Turnstile, on the back- 
side of Three Crown Square, on Fowle Lane, on buildings in Rochester Yard and 
Dirty Lane, and towards Deadman's Place. With such surroundings, to people 
who believe in omens the new market would be doomed, 



202 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

them destroyed. In 1 8oo the vestry orders Foul Lane to be widened, 
the houses on the south side to be bought for the purpose. After 
this alteration the name must have been changed, as Weston, the 
banker, in 1803, is to have a lease of a house in " York Street." 
The present aspect of the locality shows that the greatest part 
of the old Foul Lane has been absorbed into the ever-growing 
Borough Market. 

In the token-books of St. Saviour's, 1600 to 1630, Rochester 
House is frequently noted as " over against the parke," " opposite 
the parck gate," somewhat further on the way to the Banck, and 
near to the Clink Prison. In a presentment of sewers, 1640, already 
noticed, the owners of certain houses running along by the Bishop 
of Winchester's garden, by the house called Rochester House 
there, are presented for some default. It is not known who erected 
the house ; but here the Bishop of Rochester had his inn, or town 
lodging. In 1543-4 an Act was passed for an exchange of tene- 
ments between the Lord Admiral and the Bishop of Rochester, 
whereby the latter obtained the house of St. Swithin, in Southwark. 
The site was therefore the same as that held before by the prior of 
St. Swithin ; and in this way, it appears, the Bishop of Rochester 
came first to live in Southwark. Up to 1558 the bishop was here, 
as he is now reported dead at his house in Southwark.^ In the time 
of Elizabeth it is a great house, with a garden. Soon after this the 
bishop must have left it, as in 1 597 a question is before the vestry 
— Shall Rochester House pay tithes ? and in 1600 the tenants 
compound and pay. In 1634 John Donne has a lease ; and about 
now there are no less than sixty-two tenements on the site. Judging 
by the number of names in the token-books, there would be an 
average of from fifteen to forty persons admitted to the sacrament 
from Rochester House during the years 1600 to 1630. One con- 
tinuator of Stow says that Rochester House had before been 
Waverley House, the town residence of the abbot of Waverley. 
This was probably not so ; and, indeed, I make out that the 
houses were distinct, and in different places. Further, Stow him- 
self does not say so. His words are, " The place of the Bishop 
of Rochester's, certain houses near by Winchester Place that had 

' Machyn. 



WINCHESTER HOUSE, BANKSIDE. 2O3 

been given him for a palace." This refers, no doubt, to the ex- 
change before referred to. It had been parcel of the possessions 
of the priory of St. Swithin, and was now, 1 720, divided into many 
small dwellings. Rochester Yard, in the older maps, was so 
called of the Bishop of Rochester's house there. It had then a 
passage into Deadman's Place, and was a sorry place, with old 
houses ; and, except as something lilie slums, it appears after a 
time to have been entirely disused. It has long since disappeared, 
absorbed into the Borough Market.'' 

Once more regarding our map. At the north-west corner of 
Montague Close is seen no doubt a water-gate, abutting on 
the Thames and on the creek known as St. Saviour's Dock, between 
the close and Winchester House. This dock appears in the very 
earliest maps,^ and still exists as a ready means of landing goods. 
It was generally neglected and a nuisance, an(J must have been 
very much larger than we have known it to be. So late as 1791 
the vestry notes that it is filthy, smells very badly, and annoys the 
people. Accordingly it is to be filled up to no feet; and some 
other work is ordered. To this mode of improvement the bishop 
objected. The vestry rejoins that he has no exclusive right.^ 

WINCHESTER HOUSE and grounds (Map, 14) bordered this 
inlet to the south and west. It was a very famous and interesting 
palace, and will require an extended notice, inhabited as it often 
was by men of the highest mark and influence. The views of the 
palace, and of the remains of it, are very numerous, some, no 
doubt, rather pictorial than exact ; but, comparing one with another, 
we may form a good idea of this great palace. In the best old 
maps — notably Agas, 1 560 ; Vanden Keere, 1 593 ; Visscher, 

' Stow, ed. 1720. 

^ In the plan of 1542, apparently closed; but the inlet was always open to 
the Thames. 

■" There has been some squabbling about this creek. The bishop, like his 
brother, the late Romish Primate, was for a strong grasp of a bishop's tem- 
poral kingdom, and insisted that he had rights in the dock. The parish thought 
it was free to the parishioners, indeed to all — that is n free dock ; and they have 
now, 1877, a board placed over it on the wall to that effect. This decision appears 
to be in every sense right, as the St. Mary Overie's Dock is clearly east of the old 
bishop's manor, the Clink. 



204 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

1615 ; and Hollar, about 1649— are very defined plans, showing 
buildings and grounds of great extent. George Gwilt, whose name 
is favourably known in connexion with the fine restoration of the 
Lady Chapel in 1832, and who had been some time surveyor to 
the parish, took much pains in describing the place from its 
remains.'^ In its pristine state it consisted of ten courts, bounded 
on the south and west by a fine park of some sixty or seventy 
acres. The splendour of the whole may be inferred from the 
authentic pictures of the great hall given by Gwiltp Carter ,° and 
others. It was in extent about 150 feet by 40, of massive build — 
the whole character of it shown by the exquisite circular window 
at the east end, said by a competent " observer " ' to have been the 
remains of the finest window in the kingdom. Winchester House 
was built, about 1 107, by Bishop William Gifiard, as a residence 
for himself and his successors. A more ancient people had, how- 
ever, been building here before the bishop. " In the park abutting 
on the south of Winchester Palace Sir Wm. Dugdale, in 1658, as 
his workmen were sinking cellars for some new buildings, dis- 
covered a very curious tesselated pavement, with a border in the 
form of a serpentine column." ^ This, with the elaborate Roman 
work noted elsewhere " as below the foundations of St. Thomas's 
Hospital, close at hand, shows plainly enough that there were in 
Southwark numerous Roman habitations, replete even with the 
conveniences of luxury. These remains were found usually some 
eight, ten, to twenty feet below the ground level. Older still, and 
within a stone's throw, at the corner of Clink Street, an ancient 
jetty was discovered, about sixteen feet deep ; ^ and further south, 
in the line of the new Southwark Street, deep down, groups of 
piles pointed below, each five to thirteen feet long and nine inches 
square, with debris of oyster shells, bones, SiC." I will leave to 
others my own conjectures as to what these remains might mean. 

■> 6V«/. yl/rt^., 1815. 

" Especially Carter, GeiiL yMr^'., Dec., 1814. 

' Hid. 

' ' Antiquarian Itinerary, ' vol. i. 

" Page 126. 

' An/iiiological Journal, vol, ii. p, 79, 

' ibid., vol. ii. p, 44C. 



WINCHESTER HOUSE AND PARK. 20$ 

It implies quite a different depth of bed to our river. It is worth 
some consideration in connexion with very ancient remains ' found 
in many places having no connexion with Southwark. Winchester 
House was built upon ground belonging- to the Priory of Bermondsey . 
In 1366, the See of Winchester being vacant, an order is made 
upon the King's exchequer for a payment of 8/. to the monks of 
Bermondseye for the house of the bishop in Southwark ;^ and they 
had other possessions near at hand. Bermondsey was not at that 
time part of the Borough of Southwark. In 1249° there were 
dealings and a dispute as to land near the Tabard, held by 
" Ralph the Tymbermonger," the payment for which was 2s. 6d- 
per annum, at the feast of St. Michael. The monks of Bermondsey 
did not, however, have it all their own way. In 1276 the bishop 
claims entertainment on his visitation. The convent, pleading 
exemption, agreed on the first coming of every Bishop of Win- 
chester to Bermondsey, to meet him in procession and pay in lieu 
of entertainment 5 marks of silver at his house in Southwark, and 
on every succeeding year 2\ marks at Michaelmas, and to receive 
the bishop in procession on every return from beyond sea." The 
appearance on the map, rough as it is, implies a grand place, with 
high walls and a chief entrance, opposite the chain gate of the 
churchyard and the western church door. In 1598, Stow says, 
" there was a fair house, well repaired, and with a large wharf 
and a landing place called the Bishop of Winchester's stairs." 
The principal frontage is supposed to have been toward the River 
Thames. On the south the palace was bounded by beautiful 
gardens, decorated with statues and fountains, and by a spacious 
park, called Winchester Park,^ which extended west to the manor 
of Paris Garden, now the parish of Christ Church. In 18 14, 
a very destructive fire here among the warehouses surrounding 

' That is to say, many thousands of years ago. 

■* This priory was becoming enormously rich. For a list of the gifts, and the 
rapidity with which they fell in, see 'Annals of Bermondsey,' Rolls Publications. 

^ 'Annales.' 

* Wilkinson. 

' 'Antiquarian Itinerary, ' vol. i., 1815. A well-finished print after Hollar's 
six-sheet view, temp. Charles I., bears out this description ; but no doubt some 
little Jtllowance must be made for pictoriaj effect. 



206 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the old palace opened up the remains of the ancient walls for 
observers, clearing away as it did most of the more modern 
buildings. The principal length, says the observer, is from east 
to west, and seems to have been part of the hall and of other state 
apartments, probably with views toward the river. "The beautiful 
window, now exposed, has a number of triangular compartments, 
centred by a hexagon. Within each triangle is the cinquefoil 
ornament ; and the hexagon contains a beautiful star. Beneath 
this window are the three ancient entrances into the hall. On the 
south side the walls are nearly entire, and present some lofty 
windows. The north front has been almost entirely destroyed. 
Two sides of one of the quadrangles, partly remaining, known as 
Winchester Square, are now patched up as warehouses and stables. 
An abutment of one of the ancient gates was until very lately to 
be seen in an adjacent street. In most of these fragments the 
remains of windows and arches may still be traced, which suffi- 
ciently mark their connexion with the palace." It must be re- 
collected that this is 1815, and that now, in 1878, no one would 
ever dream that so noble a palace had ever been there. 

We have in our time seen most distinguished people, whose 
visits were to the State, entertained at the great mansions of noble 
and rich persons. Winchester House, at the end of the highway 
into London, always enjoyed these great and costly privileges. 
Close at hand were many landing stairs,^ and almost innumerable 
boats at the numerous stairs close at hand were always ready for 
passengers ; indeed it was the common and most ready way ; 
it was either horse, or foot, or river. One bridge only crossed the 
Thames, and, as Taylor,^ in his doggerel way, says, — 

' ' When Elizabeth came to the crown 
A coach in England then was scarcely known. " 

On the bankside was every kind of amusement— bad, good, and 
indifferent. The sculler was always ready with his wherry ; so 
Winchester House was the very place for a distinguished stranger. 

" For instance, the stairs named after Pepper Alley, The Bishop's or St. Maiy 
Overy's, Bank End, Horse Shoe Alley, Paris Garden, Holy Ghost Stairs, and by 
the old Barge House ; and there were many more. 

5 'Water Poet,' waterman, poet and dramatic writer, 1580-1654. 



FESTIVITIES AT WINCHESTER HOUSE. 20/ 

In 13s 3 -4 a Polish Palatine comes hither by water, and remains 
most of his time. In 1424, James Stewart, King of Scots, comes 
from his prison, and is married in the priory to the Lady Jane, 
daughter of Clarence, and they hold the wedding feast at Win- 
chester House ; her uncle, the rich Cardinal Beaufort, being then 
Bishop of Winchester. In 1427 the Cardinal, returning from beyond 
sea, is met by the mayor, aldermen, and citizens on horseback 
and is brought with much pomp to his palace in Southwark. In 
ISS3-4 the Ambassadors of Spain and the Queen's Council hold a 
great feast here with my Lord Chancellor, the Bishop of Win- 
chester. The same year new bishops are consecrated at the high 
altar of St. Mary Overie's, and then to " as grett a dener as youe 
have seen," with my Lord Chancellor.^ Next year Gardiner is 
dead. There are grand obsequies, a sermon, and a mass, and the 
folks "all went to his place to dinner." In 1558 the ambassador 
from Sweden, and fifty persons well horsed, are lodged and enter- 
tained at the bishop's house in Southwark. Next year the Prince 
of Sweden himself rides over the bridge to the palace, which was 
richly hanged with cloth of arras, wrought with gold and silver 
and silk, and there he remained. These are but a few specimens 
of the lively grandeur of our old Winchester House. 

Southwark being so often the temporary headquarters of the 
disaffected, this conspicuous house by the bridge of course invited 
attack. In Wyatt's rebellion the house was sacked, and a great 
destruction of goods and books ensued. 

Some note may now be made of great or noted people who lived 
in Winchester House. — Bishop Giffard, who built it in 1 107. 
The same bishop no doubt founded the Priory of St. Mary Overy 
and that of Waverley, near Farnham. This last fact accounts for 
the position of the Inn of the Abbot of Waverley close to this 
bishop's house ; as it does also for the fact that the town house 
of the Prior of St. Swithin' of Winchester was here, both kin 
foundations to that of St. Mary Overy, and reared and protected 
by the same friendly hands. Bishop Peter de Rupibus, or de la 

' Machyn. 

2 St. Swithin himself is said to have been Bishop of Winchester ; but tliat was 
long before Bishop Giffard built his palace in Southwark, 



208 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Roche, was in 1207 a great benefactor to the Church, he built the 
chapel of St. Mary Magdalen Overy south of the priory, the same 
that afterwards became the parish church. This bishop was also, 
after a very destructive fire, the refounder of the charitable foun- 
dation which became at length the Hospital of St. Thomas k 
Becket, or St. Thomas's Hospital. A very distinguished man was 
Bishop Peter, a good benefactor here, but one whose influence 
over his country might perchance have been malign and lasting. 
A favourite minister of John, his Chancellor in 121 3-14, his Chief 
Justice in 1214-15, he counselled the rejection of the Magna 
Charta, and appears to have been, more or less, an approver of the 
vilenesses of the next King. A brother of Henry III., Aymer, de 
Valence, was bishop here in 1250, a struggle between the Pope 
and the King staying his earlier residence. Bishop John Sandall 
died here in 1319.J Wm. de Edyngdon, 1 345, was made Prelate 
of the Order of the Garter, which office has remained with the 
Bishops of Winchester ever since. A far more important man 
comes now, — ^William of Wykeham, bishop in 1366, priest 
of the chapel in Southwark to his predecessor ; a man so much 
in favour with the King that " every thing was done by him and 
nothing was done without him." He had a large capacity for 
the reception of good things ; a great pluralist, he held no less 
than fourteen distinct benefices. He had need of all, having ten or 
twelve castles, manor houses, and palaces to keep up. Advanced 
in the State as in the Church, he held the highest offices, among 
others that of Lord Chancellor in 1369. A man whose hand was 
in everything naturally made many enemies, and one most power- 
ful, John Duke of Gaunt, pursued him, and at last drove him 
from his palace in Southwark and from power. Favoured, like 
as another Bishop of Winchester of our own time, by a King's 
mistress (in Wykeham's case by Alice Perrers and by a powerful 
party), he soon regained his position, and came back to his 
place in Southwark. The bishop, like his modern successor, 
was personally a good sort of man ; he left money for poor 
prisoners in the Marshalsea and other prisons ; to the prior and 

' To those interested in the long hnc of these bishops, C.issan's lives of them 
may be well consulted. 



CARDINAL BEAUFORT. 209 

convent of St. Mary Overy 40/. for the repair of the church and 
to pray for his soul ; to the brethren and sisters of St. Thomas's 
Hospital'' for the like purpose — i. e., to pray for his soul. He was 
a charitable man, as well he might be with such revenues. He 
founded most munificently two colleges, one at Oxford, one at 
Winchester. He rebuilt his cathedral at great cost, — nearly all 
his own work. His origin was humble, his parents were poor ; 
but, nevertheless, he became one of the chief men of his time, and he 
was certainly very far from being one of the worst, as his intercession 
for Lollards, when Lollardy was, let us say, not popular, shows. 

As a contrast to this once poor man of low estate comes, as the 
next Lord of Winchester House, a man rich in money, titles, and 
associations — "the proud Cardinal," Henry Beaufort, illegiti- 
mate son of John of Gaunt. He plays an important part in Shake- 
speare's ' Henry the Sixth,' — his gospel clearly" more of the sword 
than of the Word." Great feuds spring up between him and the 
uncle of the King, the protector Gloster. His character is fore- 
shadowed, " If once he come to be a Cardinal, He '11 make his cap 
coequal with the Crown " ; which the mayor puts afterwards in 
plain words, "The Cardinal is more haughty than the devil." In 
the Shakespearean quarrel, Gloster exclaims, in anger, "Winchester 
goose. "° " Thou that giv'st .... indulgences to sin." All this 
is no doubt a poetical account of facts as they were. " The city 
of London was moved against this bishop and would have de- 
stroyed him in his inn in Southwark, but the gates of London 
Bridge were shut."' Sir Joshua Reynolds, in a hideous picture, 
now at Dulwich (showing how the beautiful only was natural to 
his pencil), endeavours to portray the scene in Shakespeare where 

* He had held a visitation of the hospital in 1473, as was often done by the 
Bishops of Winchester, afterwards, for instance, by Andrewes, to investigate and 
judge as to serious charges. 

" This refers to licensed houses on the bankside in Southwark . The original 
manuscript of the Winchester rules and regulations of these places, supposed to 
have been written in 1430, is now in the Bodleian, and was, it is believed, 
preserved in the Bishop's Court, in whose jurisdiction the Stews of Southwark 
were. 

^ ' English Chronicle,' Camden Society, p. 53. Inn, residence, as the abbot of 
Battle's Inn, the Bishop of Rochester's, and the Abbot of Hyde's by the Tabard. 

P 



2IO OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the King contemplates the dying Cardinal. "So bad a death," 
says Warwick, " argues a monstrous life " ; — and the King in these 
magnificent words reproves the harsh judgment, — 
" Forbear to judge, for wc are sinners all. 

Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close ; 

And let us all to meditation. " 

Here, as in the case of Fastolf, the poet has exaggerated and cari- 
catured the bad qualities of once living historical personages. In 
the church of St. Saviour's the arms of the Beauforts were restored, 
carved in stone on a pillar in the south cross aisle ; and by the old 
remaining sculpture, on each side there appear strings pendent 
and plaited in a true lover's knot, with a cardinal's hat placed 
oven' Another distinguished bishop, William Waynfleet, 1447- 
1486, the time of Cade's rebellion. He took part in promoting 
peace and mercy ; a great character in a time of rudeness and 
coarse cruelty. Friend of the remarkable Fastolf, he becomes 
chief executor, and has trouble enough to keep the wolves ofT the 
rich prey, and only succeeds by throwing much of the cargo over- 
board, in saving some at least for his college at Oxford. The con- 
duct of the bishop, as portrayed in the Paston Letters,' shows great 
honesty and discretion. In the quarrel of the Roses the Yorkists 
are against him. On one occasion he exhibits before them the 
writing of his appointment as bishop " in Le Peynted Chambre in 
his Manor House' in Southwark." Fond of processions and prayers 
in time of trouble, fond of anything which might make suffering 
less, in 1452 he orders the clergy of Southwark to be assembled at 
eight in the morning, to go in solemn procession by the doors of 
St. Margaret's-on-the-Hill, and St. Olave's in Tooley Street, with 
litanies and banners, through the public streets as far as the 
Monastery of Bermondsey, for the welfare of the Church and for 
the King's prosperity. In 1467 he considers the fatal distemper 
which rages in Southwark, among innocents and children, to be on 
account of sin, and, as in the other case, he orders public proces- 

' Concanen, ' St. Saviour's,' p. 74. 

' Paston Letters, invaluable as to the time in which Waynfleet and Fastolf 
lived. 

° Not the Maner House of our map, which was not yet built, but the Manor 
House of the Bishop, Winchester House. As to the quotation, see Cassan. 



BISHOP WAYNFLEET. 211 

sions, with prayers and litanies, as a remedy and warning. A 
Christian man, merciful, peaceful, and loyal, he has regard also to the 
conditions of his neighbourhood, building in 1473 a " stone 
bridge " in Bermondsey Street over a stream there. He met Cade in 
St. Margaret's Church, and, by his astuteness, he managed to loosen 
the hold of the captain over his followers, and to bring to nought 
that formidable outbreak. The story is told, remotely consistent 
with historical truth, in the second part of Shakespeare's ' King 
Henry VI.,' and I have noted it before. The next remarkable 
occupant of Winchester House, of very humble origin, was Fox, 
bishop from 1500 to 1528, Lord Privy Seal, 1516; Minister to Henry 
VII. and VIII. Able as one trained under Henry VII. was likely 
to be, he did not long suit the son and successor, and soon retired 
from his high dignities to do good in a less prominent way, partly 
supplanted by Wolsey, but chiefly because he was devoted to his 
better work. His memory comes down to us Southwark people 
chiefly as the constructor of the very beautiful altar-screen of St. 
Saviour's. He was also a great and liberal restorer at Winchester, 
founder of Corpus Christi College at Oxford, and of free schools, 
Taunton and another. As the executor of Margaret Countess of 
Richmond, he had much to do with the founding that great college, 
St. John's, Cambridge. He was not, like so many of his prede- 
cessors and contemporaries, or like the courtiers generally, a 
seeker after " maners " and other spoil, so readily to be had in those 
changing tumultuous times. In 1 528 he owes money — 100 marks — to 
the King, and is reminded of it, but pleads that he is poor, and has 
spent much in the repair of ruinous houses in Southwark.^ He 
does not give a very good account of his neighbours, as he reports 
to Wolsey that, except in Southwark,^ which is under the Arch- 
deacon's jurisdiction, there is as little known crime as in any 
diocese of the realm. In a fine portrait of Vertue's he is repre- 
sented blind, a calamity which befell him late in life. Not a shade 
of the sinister is to be seen in the face of this good bishop. 
Wolsey, chaplain to Fox, supplants and succeeds him, not so 

' ' State Papers, ' Brewer, sub dat. 

" No other result could be expected ; Southwark was known as the place 
appointed for the reception of refuse, physical and moral. 

P 2 



212 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS TEOPLK. 

far as I can see a resident in Winchester House; still he was 
not unmindful of the neig-hbourhood. He appears as a contributor 
" to the gild of bretherne and systers of the fraternite of Saynt 
George the Martyr," and he is at first a good friend of the Duke 
of Suffolk and the French Queen his wife, who live at Suffolk 
Place (Map, 73). This friendship was soon done with. Wolsey 
often presses the duke for moneys due to the King, and it is well 
known that Suffolk, in his turn, took an active part in Wolsey's 
fall. The following is a significant incident as connected with this 
change. Paulet to Wolsey, — " informs him of his three weeks court 
held in the Clynk, his bishop's manor." Power is, however, 
waning, the bailiff is refractory, and says he is my Lord of Suffolk's 
servant. Soon after this, Wolsey is deprived, the Clink Manor is 
in the hands of the King, and a new grant of the office of bailiff is 
made. The bailiff and keeper of the manor so appointed by the 
King is to have 2d. a day.^ 

If high distinction comes, as too often it appears to do, per 
fas et nefas, then Stephen Gardiner stands the most distin- 
guished and most astute of all the lords of Winchester House. 
" He was certainly not an honest man ; and he had been active in 
Henry's reign, against his own real opinions." ^ His long residence 
in South wark, his liberality in the restoration of St. Saviour's Church, 
and his importance in the state, call, even in this local history, for 
an extended notice. Some there are who approve even of Gardiner. 
Either by way of apology or paradox, it is the custom now and then 
to whitewash doubtful reputations of the past, Gardiner's among the 
rest." He was well connected, probably the nephew of Elizabeth 
Woodville, the queen of Edward IV. In 1531 he was made Bishop 
of Winchester, and made the house in Southwark his residence, 
occupying it until his death in 1554, often preaching in the neigh- 
bouring church of St. Mary Overy before and after the suppression 
of the priory. He was the arch-schemer of his time. He would 
thwart, says his co-worker, Bonner, everything which did not origi- 
nate with himself. No man now alive, he says, excels Gardiner in 

' ' State Palmers,' Brewer, Nos. 6438 and 6803. 
■' Hallam, 'Constitutional History of England.' 

° ' Biographia Britannica ' ; Saturday Ri.-i'k-LV, }v\^ 2'!fii, 1874; ' Essays on tli8 
Reformation,' by Maitland. 



BISHOP STEPHEN GARDINER. 213 

gaining- his end by secret and circuitous methods. He was an able 
lawyer, and wonderfully shrewd, the very man to govern others. 
Cruel as courageous, courageous as cruel, he aimed at the highest. 
It is said that the last wife of Henry barely escaped his plottings. 
Accused of heresy, she might, but for the royal ruffian's death, 
have followed his other wives. Be it as it may concerning this one, 
that other most excellent lady much connected with Southwark, 
Catherine Willoughby, the fourth Duchess of Suffolk, the friend 
of Queen Elizabeth, and "my most gracious Lady" of Latimer, 
probably saved herself from the usual cruel death by flying from 
the kingdom, and remaining out of it until the deaths of Mary and 
Gardiner. Holinshed relates an interesting scene between Gardiner 
and her husband Bertye, who had been commanded to appear at 
Winchester House. The Bishop comes out of the gallery into his 
dining chamber in great rage. I have appointed to-day, he says, 
for devotion according to the holiness of the same, and will not 
trouble myself further with you ; but he said further. Depart not 
Vi^ithout leave, and present yourself again at seven in the morning. 
Bertye was questioned, " Is the lady your wife as ready now to set up 
the mass as she was before to pull it down ? You say she is easily 
to be persuaded. Can you persuade her ? " It was clear what she 
had to expect ; so, as " Mistress White," she fled at five one 
morning across the sea, with her infant child, and so saved -^rself. 
A very old ballad,°'The Duchess of Suffolk's Calamity/ Prelates 
in doggerel how 

" The Duchess of Suffolk seeing this, 
Whose life liliewise the tyrant sought, 
For fear of death was fain to fly, 
And leave her house most secretly.'' 

Her adventures, as interesting as any romance can be, merit 
another and a more lengthy paper, if I am permitted by-and-by 
to notice the " Brandons of Southwark." It is true, the spirited 
duchess gave Gardiner such provocation as might have troubled a 
saint to forget or forgive ; and he was by no means a saint upon 
the pattern of Matthew xviii. 22. How she had troubled him is 
amusing to tell. At a great feast she wishes to go up to the hall 

^ ' Roxburghe Ballads, ' with a rude woodcut — the duchess and her husband 
escaping, and an execution by fire in the background. 



214 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

with her husband. It is explained to her that it cannot be. She 
accordingly takes Gardiner, with the provoking remark that if she 
cannot have him she loves best she will go with him she loves least. 
Again, when Gardiner was immured in the Tower, the duchess 
observes him as she passes in her boat, and accosts him, " Ah ! 
Bishop, it is merrie' with the lambs now the wolf is shut up " ; and, 
as if that were not provoking enough, she had a dog dressed in a 
rochet carried before her, called after Gardiner's name. Bertye 
said the dog affair was wrongly interpreted ; any way, it was only 
a sprightly trick of a spirited lady, but not to be revenged by a 
cruel death. The desire shows the mean and implacable nature of 
the man. It is well to know truthfully the real undisguised character 
of our historical great ones. Macintosh ' says this : " On the 28th 
January, ISSS, a commission, at the head of which was Gardiner, 
Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Winchester, sat in the church of 
St. Mary Overy's, in Southwark, for the trial of Protestants. His 
great abilities, his commanding character, and the station he was 
now chosen to fill, do not allow us to doubt that he, at least at the 
beginning, was the main author of these bloody counsels .... 
although at the first he may only have intended to touch the 
leaders." 

Winchester House is a sort of prison house, and evil suspicions 
of the cruel deeds done there creep about. " Was not one," says 
a writer of the period, " within these two years murdered in the 
Bishop of Winchester's lodge, and the matter forged that he had 
hanged himself ? " ^ The lodge seems to have been a place of 
detention, a supplementary Clink. There is Marbeck's case. He 
had written a Concordance to the Bible." He is ordered to the 
Marshalsea, but to be well treated. He is to and fro to Gardiner's 
house, " to the Bishop's Hall." He evidendy gives no satisfaction, 
and comes back to irons instead of " to be well treated." His wife 
comes, with her child, and entreats Gardiner " for the love of God, 
and if ye came of woman, put me off no longer, but let me go to 

' ' Histoi7 of England,' vol. ii. pp. 319-20. 

'An adverse writer. Brinklow's 'Complaint,' 1 542, p. 29, Early English 
Text Society. 

' The first Concordance printed in English, Grafton, 1550. 



GARDINER AND BONNER. 21 5 

my husband.'" After that she was allowed ; but she was to be 
searched every time. Marbeck at last obtains the King's pardon, 
the King telling the bishops that Marbeck had employed his time 
much better than they had theirs. It must be allowed that Marbeck 
was a zealot, capable of giving open offence, as the title of a work 
of his shows.' I have already noted how the underlings flouted 
their masters when times were changing ; how the Clink bailiff 
derided his master, as much as to say he was Suffolk's servant, not 
his ; and so on. And now it is Gardiner's turn to be flouted. 
Henry is dead, and Edward reigns — a quite opposite state of things. 
Gardiner wishes to do honour to the memory of his old master, and 
arranges for a solemn dirge in honour of the late King at St. Mary 
Ovaries. The players of the Bankside hear of this ; and they 
venture to announce that " they will act a solemne playe, to trye 
who shal have most resorte, they in game or he in ernest." He is 
fain to ask the Lord Protector to interfere ' between him and these 
vagabond players. I make no apology for repeating the note in 
this place. But these are only petty vexations. The next year he 
preaches some objectionable sermons, adverse to the existing powers 
— one at "Whitehall, which takes him into trouble, and a finer and 
more clever one at St. Mary Overie's in 155 1. He comes from 
Kingston in his barge to his house, and is seen walking up and 
down his garden discussing the matter. A session is held in the 
Marshalsea as to Gardiner, and for the time Winchester House is 
his prison. Soon, however, he leaves it, is deprived, and spends all 
the rest of Edward's reign in prison. 

During the whole reign Bonner is in the Marshalsea in South- 
wark ; and Gardiner is imprisoned in his own house, in the Fleet, 
or in the Tower. It was while he was in the Tower that the 
Duchess of Suffolk jeered at him, which offence, when his time 
came, he warmly remembered. Now soon the scene changes ; 
Mary is Queen, — herself liberates "her own prisoners," kissing 
Gardiner, and making him her Lord Chancellor. He is now con- 
ducted with much honour by Lord Arundel to his place by St. 

' Herbert's 'Typography,' vol. i. p. 531. 

* ' A Ripping Open the Pope's Favdell,' 1581, Handbook, by W. Carew Ilazlitt. 
' 'State Papers,' February 5th, 1547. So that solemn plays were enacted 
on the Bankside so early as 1547. 



2i6 OLD SOtJTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Mary Overie's, and afterwards to dinner at Bath Place. Divers 
bishops bring Bonner also from the Marshalsea, to his own place 
at Powles. 

Winchester House is now in its glory, much feasting goes on, 
the ambassador of Spain and the Queen's Council have a " dener as 
great as could be," at my Lord Chancellor's. New bishops, ap- 
pointed instead of those Gardiner had just assisted in depriving, 
are consecrated at the high altar of St. Mary Overie's— and then 
to dener — and so on. Now Pole is in full conference with Gar- 
diner, at Winchester House and elsewhere, for the thorough con- 
version of England to the old faith. Lists of all who do not con- 
form are by order made in the parishes ; and now come, fast and 
furious, examinations tending to cruel pressure and punishment. 
Some of these quasi-judicial proceedings take place in private 
houses, in my Lord Montague's in the Close, some in Winchester 
House, some in the churches. Three examined in St. George's 
church are condemned, and almost at once burned to death in St. 
George's Fields. The Clink, the Marshalsea, and other prisons 
are soon full enough, and burnings go on, with what result the 
next reign is soon to show. Gardiner is even now not happy. 
Things do not go smoothly with him ; he comes from the gallery 
to his dining-chamber, and will attend to no one, and so in great 
anger dismisses the whole press of suitors. 

Happily for the people Mary's reign was short. Much to the 
perplexity of those who thought deeply of religious matters, 
change — and that a complete change — comes again. With par- 
tial intervals, during all these four reigns, the religious world of 
England, notably in Southwark, as the prisons here amply testified, 
is more like pandemonium let loose than like a Christian kingdom. 
True, in the order of nature or of providence these things cure 
themselves, Forms of religion, religious ceremonies not of the 
essence, and all the devices of man or of priest, when no longer 
suitable, give place to something better, or to something more 
adapted to the times and the people. 

Elizabeth, after many a narrow escape, is Queen. Gardiner is 
dead, and Bonner passes finally to prison, once more to the Mar- 
shalsea, and comes no more out until he comes out in 1569, dead, 
to be buried obscurely by night in the churchyard of St. George 



GARDINER AND BONNER. 21/ 

the Martyr, dose at hand. A fitting end for such a coarse and 
cruel man. 

A question naturally arises, Were these two men, who spent 
so much of their time in the palace and prison of Southwark, 
as cruel and bloodthirsty as they are represented to have been ? 
It does not concern us very much to attempt to decide this ques- 
" tion. Let us concede that Dr. Maitland's* whitewash is genuine — 
that a large discount is to be taken off the statements of the good 
but credulous historian of the martyrs,' that it was the custom and 
spirit of the time to be cruel and vindictive toward opponents in 
religion ; well, what does it all resolve itself into ? The entire for- 
getfulness of the fact that everything human is liable to err, and 
that the best formed opinions may have to be reviewed and revised. 
The question may be once more asked, can opinion be formed by 
persecution and fear ? The best and truest natures fly, or go to 
their deaths ; the complying, the timid, and the indifferent, change 
with the time ; the result, not a conversion to truth, but the pro- 
duction only of hypocrites and timeservers. We are nowhere 
taught to believe that the kingdom of heaven is peopled by such, 
and the cruel process produces no other. The whole affair is an 
absurdity. It is impossible to agree with the Saturday Reviewer ^ 
that " there is no evidence whatever that either of these prelates 
was harsh or bloodthirsty in enforcing the law " as it was enforced 
in Queen Mary's reign — that " there is much evidence to the con- 
trary, and this especially true of Gardiner." This reviewer quotes 
Sir James Macintosh ' in support, and I do no more in confutation 
than quote a passage ^ by the same authority, overlooked by him, 
in which Gardiner is denounced as " the main author of these bloody 
counsels " — as one " who afterwards reached a place in English his- 
tory more conspicuous than honourable." Note also the brutality of 
the man to Rogers, who went to his death from Winchester House 
and St. Mary Overie's. It is said that his diocese was one of the 

* 'Essays on the Reformation.' 

^ Fox. See also 'Fanaticism,' by Isaac Taylor, as to the effeit of an enforced 
festering celibacy upon this abomination. 
8 Art. ' Bloody Gardiner,' July 25th, 1874. 
' 'Hist. England,' vol. ii, 
' Il/id, vol., ii. pp. 3I9-20, 



2l8 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

bloodless class ; the condemnation of the proto-martyrs and others 
in St. Mary Overie's, not only in his diocese, but as it were next 
door to his palace, only shows that they were condemned here and 
burnt elsewhere. Cruelty, under any pretext, among- any people, 
and at any time, demands that every rational person shall frown 
it down with all his power and influence. It is simply an animal 
act of the ferocious kind, and has no connexion whatever with any 
hig-h or noble principle. This feeling- in me is so strong that it 
must serve as my apology for this episode in ' Old Southwark.' 

In I5S5) Gardiner is dead, — the leading pilot in most troubled 
times strangely enough arrives at death peacefully at Whitehall, 
and" is brought the same day to his own place by St. Mary 
Overies. The knell is begun, and at dirge and nones the bell is 
kept ringing ; inside our church is much of solemn grandeur ; a 
hearse of four branches, with gilt candlesticks and two white 
branches ; 60 staff torches and all the quire hanged with black and 
arras. A dirge was sung and the morrow mass of requiem, 
bishops, and lords, and gentlemen present; my Lord Bonar of 
London, wearing- his mitre, did sing mass of requiem ; and Dr. 
White,^ Bishop of Lincoln, did preach at the same mass — and after 
all they went to his place to dinner. The same afternoon was a 
dirge at every parish in London. On the 21st November a great 
company of priests and clerks brought his body to St. Mary 
Overies Church, and afore the corse the King of Harolds with his 
coat and with five banners of his arms and four of images wrought 
in fine gold and oil. There was the morrow mass ; three, one of 
the Trinity, one of our Lady, and the third requiem for his soul, 
and after to dener. The body placed in a herse till a day that he 
shall be taken to Winchester to be buried there. On the 24th 
February, 1555 -6, his obsequies are performed with much cere- 
mony at St. Mary Overies. My Lord Montague and very many 
were there, and after mass to dener at my Lord Montague's." At 

* Machyn, ' Diary,' and Stow, 'Annals.' 

' The last of the Catholic bishops of Winchester, 1556, deprived, ISS9; he 
had before been consecrated as Bishop of Lincoln, in St. Maiy Overies, by 
Gardiner. 

' In the Close there v/as, by order of the Vestiy, a special door leading from 
the church to my Lord Montague's. 



THE FUNERAL OF GARDINER. 219 

his gate the corse was put into a wagon with four wheels, covered 
with black, and over the corse a picture made with his mitre on his 
head, arms, and five gentlemen bearing his five banners, in gowns 
and hoods ; then two harolds in their coat armour. Garter and 
Rouge Cross ; then came the men riding, carrying sixty burning 
torches, the mourners in gowns and coats, two hundred before and 
behind. With a little imagination we may picture to ourselves 
this magnificent funeral. From the gates of Winchester House 
and St. Saviour's they proceed along St. Margaret's Hill, past the 
prisons the deceased bishop had helped to fill ; the procession 
stays awhile at the old square-towered church of St. George, a 
church then of rich stained-glass windows, rich services, and ofTer- 
ings far and wide. While they stay at St. George's come priests 
and clerks with cross and censing ; and at this church they are 
furnished with great torches. The black cavalcade is soon lost in 
the distance, and they proceed to their destination, Winchester. 

From the semi-sublime, at least in audacity, to the almost ridi- 
culous, we pass from Gardiner to Home. Had Winchester House 
a household spirit, how he would have wondered at the diversity 
of his masters ! In 1577 the Bishop of Winchester, now Home, 
sends word that he would gladly know the opinion of the astrologers 
relative to the tayled star. Either from wit or banter he thinks 
they may know as to the lower heaven — " to the higher they will 
never go " ; but not the less he consults them. He dies in 
Winchester House, 1579. 

In Bishop Cooper appears every way a little more of a 
man. He is well known as a reasonable writer against the vexa- 
tious Marprelate people,' hence the name of a well-known tract, 
'Hay any work for the Cooper,' after the manner of a street cry. 
In " an epistle to the terrible priests," * Oh, read over D John 
Bridges,' 1589, a few quaint words of warning are addressed to 
this Bishop of Winchester, that he shall not imprison laymen for 
not subscribing, and that, if any Mordecai should stoop to gracious 
Hester — i. e., Queen Elizabeth, it would not be well for his square 

' Isaac D'Israeli, in the easily-got book, ' The Curiosities of Literature,' tells 
Concerning them all that is interesting to the general reader. For other readers 
there are other works, notably W. Maskell's, 1845. 



220 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

cap, and reminding him of what he had lately said at St. Mary 
Overie's Church, in which he had put the Book of Common Prayer 
side by side with the Bible. Wainscote-faced bishops, swine, 
dumb dogs, non-resident journeymen hedge-priests, are some of 
the words freely cast about in this Marprelate tract. Whether 
Cooper died at his Southwark palace or no I am not aware. He was 
followed by a Montague, a Privy Councillor, and one of a name 
connected with the locality. Now comes one demanding more 
notice — Bishop Andrewes, a man distinguished and of great 
influence. It is said that Laud was his disciple ; that, indeed, 
Andrewes was almost a Romanist, under the guise of a Protestant 
bishop — " the model of those who were apeing Roman ceremonies, 
cautiously and tentatively introducing Roman doctrine, and at 
the same time preaching passive obedience to the most kingly 
tyranny."'' That enlightened Catholic, Lord Acton, gave in the 
Times, November 24th, 1874, the titles of documents showing that 
" there were proselytes (to Rome) less likely than James L and 
Bishop Andrewes." Hallam'^says Andrewes taught that contri- 
tion, without confession and absolution, was not sufficient ; that he 
attempted to bring in auricular confession and other like customs, 
which, had it been successful, would have seriously undermined the 
Protestant Church. Andrewes was chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, 
and was by her made Dean of Westminster. It was not until 
16 18 that he became Bishop of Winchester. He must have 
been well acquainted with Alleyn and Henslowe ; and, as they 
were agreeable and influential people, was no doubt discreetly 
civil as to the bear-gardens, the bankside, and all the rest of it. 

Alleyn was a great man here just now. In 16 19 he tells the vestry 
that he is no longer oneof the parish, and that it will be well to choose 
another representative for the Clink, the bishop's jurisdiction ; but 
the vestry like him, and tell him politely to go or stay, but they 
desire rather his company. Shakespeare had died shortly before ; 
but it is likely that Andrewes knew him. The bishop was an 
astute man ; he was one of a commission that forced Selden into a 
retractation of his History of Tithes. He was more than once autho- 
rized by Royal commission to inspect St. Thomas's Hospital and 

' Green's ' History of the English People,' ed. 1875, pp. 488-9. 
^ ' Conslitutional History.' 



BISHOP ANDREWES. 221 

correct abuses. His form for consecrating cfiurch plate (!), censers (!) , 
and candlesticks (!) became the model ; indeed, he contributed 
largely, more than did any other English Churchman, to the 
relapse into superstition ; and this condition of things caused trouble, 
and, as we shall see, riotous proceedings in the churches, notably 
at St. Saviour's and St. Olave's in Southwark. 

Bishop Andrewes was learned and witty, introducing puns and 
witticisms, provocative of applause, into his sermons. This was 
not, however, unusual or even unexpected in those times, and one 
cannot in a moment say it was altogether wrong or unseemly. The 
best instance of this old sermon wit was Dr. South's, before the 
Merchant Taylors, from the text, "A remnant shall be saved." 
The bishop was learned ; but his meaning was smothered 
under a load of verbiage. With all his failings, he must have 
impressed others with his piety and worth. His friend 
Casaubpn, who lodged with him, could scarcely tear himself away. 
They spent their time in literary and theological discussions, in 
all which Andrewes was no common master.' He knew many 
languages, and was to the very end of his life a diligent student. 
Nevertheless, he is an instance of the exceeding mischief which the 
best and most learned of men may do, as no doubt his disciple 
Laud felt when his troubles came thick upon him. 

On the 25th September, 1626, the bishop died, the last of those 
who died at Winchester House.' He was a great benefactor to 
the parish — in truth, a most liberal man. The people testified as 
to the respect in which he was held. The house mourners made 
an offering of some ill. to the chaplain; and the church and 
chancel were hung with 165 yards of baize. The Bishop of Eky 
preached the funeral sermon. The monument in the Lady Chapel 
is but part of the original. The fair canopy, supported by black 
marble pillars, and the epitaph, were destroyed in the great iire of 
1676, the roof of the Little or Bishop's Chapel falling in upon the 
monument. 

It is said that the bishops continued to occupy Winchester House 
until the civil wars of 164 1 ; but I find in the token-books of the 

^ 'Isaac Casaubon,' Pattison. See also pp. 190, 191. 
The last bishop who lived hgre was Andrewes, — Ctmningham, 



222 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE, 

parish, under the date 1600, the name of Sir Edward Dyer against 
Winchester House. Sir Edward Dyer was the friend of Sir Philip 
Sydney. He was a man of some little poetic reputation — a kindly 
natured man, who gave a buck once a year for a parish feast ; and 
he managed somehow or other to lose much of his possessions. 
Taylor, the water poet, notes " Sir Edward Dyer at the warden's 
gate." The gift of the buck was rather costly to the parish. In 
the churchwardens' accounts, 1602, is this entry : Charges at the 
eating of Sir Edward Dyer's buck, 3/. i6s.; and given to him who 
brought the buck, 2s. 6d. There evidently had been some words 
over this extravagance ; and an entry appears, that at any future 
dinner for the vestrymen and their wives at the eating of Sir 
Edward Dyer's buck, no more should be expended than 5 marks, 
beyond the 20s. which Sir Edward used to give. This entry was 
in 1600, showing how little effect the vestry minute had, and that 
the parish capacity was larger than his generosity. I have some 
evidences of the extent of the vestry's convivial feasts.^ The bills 
are quaint, and may appear later on. 

In 1642 the old palace was, by order of Parliament, turned into 
a prison. Among other illustrious prisoners were Sir Francis 
Dodington and the mystic Sir Kenelm Digby, who in his portraits 
appears intensely fat. This condition may explain Selden's 
pleasantry concerning Sir Kenelm in prison. " I can," he says, 
" compare him to nothing but a great fish that we catch and let 
go again ; but still he will come to the bait. At last, therefore, we 
put him in some great pond for store." The Parliament were not 
unmindful of the prisoners, so they ordered some orthodox and 
godly minister, well affected to the King and Parliament, to 
preach to them. After the King's death, Winchester House and 
its surroundings were sold — the South Manor and Winchester 
House to Thomas Walker, of Camberwell, for 4,360/. 8^. id. On 

' It is, in fact, recorded in the vestry minutes how one of their number, Mr. 
Humble, had said that the wardens were "knaves and rascalles." It appeared, 
whether this was so or no, that they must have dinner, the vestiy and their wives, 
with the churchwardens, at the parish cost. The same year, 1602, are these entries 
in the parish accounts: Dinner on Easter Day, iSj-. ; Audit, 5/. l6s.; Ambulation, 
i/. los, 6d.; Visitation, i/. 8j-. 6cf.; and another Visitation, 2/, is. 8</.; and the 
like. 



COLONEL LILBURNE IN WINCHESTER HOUSE. 223 

the restoration it reverted to the See of Winchester. In the time 
of Charles II. an Act of Parliament was passed, empowering 
Bishop Morley to lease out the property ; so in process of time 
Red Cross Street, Queen Street, Duke Street, Ewer Street, 
Worcester Street, Castle Street, and others came to be, and the 
palace itself was transformed into prison, workhouse, tenements, 
heretical chapel, warehouses, and what not. 

In 1645 John Lilburne, a very honest but noisy and persistent 
disturber, lived here. In 1649 he is allowed to leave his prison in 
the Tower to visit his sick and distressed family in Winchester 
House, "mine own house in Southwark." "Honest John" was 
liked in the Borough, and the people petitioned for him in his troubles ; 
" Freeborn John," of Carlyle, a passionate hater of Cromwell. 

These old houses became gradually overfilled. " Multitudes of 
people were drawn to inhabit them, that so they became pestered 
[pestiferous is meant] and unwholesome." ' One cause, at least, 
was obvious. The authorities were set against increase of buildings 
in London. The people, however, would and did increase. Of 
course, then, Lilburne's children, in the midst of this deadly district, 
were sickly. This subject I hope to discuss under the question of 
health, plague, sweating sickness, and the like, which so often made 
Southwark their deadly head-quarters. When Winchester House 
was a palace, with gardens well kept up, inhabited by a few well- 
to-do dignified people and their retainers, the place was well 
enough. Some of the bishops seem even to have lived inconveniently 
long. But with deterioration, changes within, and the condition 
without, the locality became altogether pestilential. " Rents," as 
the small courts and rows of houses were mostly called, sprung up 
about the theatres, and between them and the High Street. These 
" rents " often changed hands and names. The surroundings give 
trouble. These places are often noted in the vestry proceedings 
as exceedingly noisome and offensive. The ditches are open; the 
ground is swampy. Small bridges every here and there span 
the streams, or more properly ditches, which, with the rising and 
falling of the tide, are kept well stirred up. 

In 1692 the old place is a chapel,' in possession of a congregation 

' Certificate, College Physicians, 1637, Rolls. 
' Wilson's ' Dissenting Churches,' vol. iv. p. 210. 



224 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE- 

of dissolute pseudo-Baptists, called, Iticus a non lucendo, Particular 
Baptists, otherwise Fifth Monarchy men. At one time Gardiner, at 
another the ornate and pre-ritualistic Andrewes, are the lords of 
Winchester House. Now, one " Baxter the elder " of the congre- 
gation is here, who writes a pious tract with a disgusting title.^ 
The old house became, at least for a time, a poor-house,' and, like 
nearly all we have known in Southwark, in this case aided more 
completely by a great fire in 1814, passes into markets, places -of 
business, and great warehouses. Such the beginning, and such the 
end, of this grand and very noted palace in Southwark. 

DEADMAN'S PLACE. 
" A long, dirty, straggling street, of no great account for build- 
ings or inhabitants. It may be reckoned to begin at New Rents, 
and, severing Counter Street from Stoney Street, passeth by College 
Church Yard, and then, turning northwards by Red Cross Street, 
runs to the Thames " to Bank End. Thus far Strype's Stow, 1720. 
This account cannot be recognized in our map, nor at the present 
time. It had not then come to be ; it is now changed, or passed 
away. New Rents became Church Street, and Deadman's Place 
became Park Street, before the beginning of this century. The 
common belief is that in the early times of plague and sweating 
sickness, when it was sometimes needful to extemporize burying- 
grounds in unwonted places, this became a great burial-place. 
Close at hand, it may have been used in the extension of St. 
Margaret's Churchyard ; but it had the name before that. In the 
vestry proceedings come now and then notices of shifting quarters, 
the old burying-places being full. So in an Act, 28 Henry VIII., 
the churchyard of St. Margaret's (Margaret's Hill), lying in the 
common street, was recited as so full that at one time no less than 
" ffower dead bodyes were buried in one sepulchre or pitt att one 
tyme, because they have not any rowme " ; and it was not infrequent 
to take some up to make room for others. In the year 1625, when 
Fletcher died of the plague, St. Saviour's had to find room for 
2,346 dead — probably a full third of the people. It was therefore 

' 'A Shove for a Heavy Christian.' 

^ " Part of the main wall of the ancient building novif used for lodging the poor 
of this parish, called Winchester House, was fallen down," — Vestiy, 1718. 



DfiADMAN'S PLACE. 22$ 

natural to think that Deadman's Place might have taken its name 
in one of those dreadful years,^ long before. In our map however 
(79) is the semblance of a home between the gate leading to the 
Duke of Suffolk's park and the Salutation, and not of a way or 
street. This gives countenance to the passage in Strype's Stow, 
2nd appendix, p. 12, which says, " Deadman's Place seems to be a 
corruption of word for Desmond Place, where the Earl of Desmond 
in Q. Elizabeth's time dwelt, as it was ingeniously conjectured." 
This is not the true origin of the name, as our Map, 1S42, shows. 
The occupation by some one giving the name to the place or house 
must have been long before Elizabeth's time. There is no mention 
of Deadman's Place in the founding of the College by Cure, in 
1584; but there were many burial-places hereabout. Curiously, 
as if to keep death before the poor of the College, it became ° a 
burying-ground used by the parish, and was, so to speak, the 
recreation-ground of the almsfolk. In a broadsheet, 161 3, the 
rate of duties for burials in this Colledge Churchyard, issued by 
the churchwardens, was, with a coffin, xij^. ; without, viijV. Proof 
that it was not unusual to bury with or without ° a coffin. In a 
quaint book, ' The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie,' 1604, is 
this : " In Dead-mans place at Saint Mary-overus a man servant 
being buried at seven of the clocke in the morning, and the grave 
standing open for more dead Commodities, at foure of the clocke 
in the same evening- he was got up alive againe by a strange 
miracle ; which, to be true and certaine, hundreds of people can 
testifie that saw him act like a country Ghost in his white peackled 
sheete." There was also a burial-place attached to an old Puritan 
meeting-house nearer the river, which, in the latter part of the 
last century, became inclosed within the walls of the great brewery, 
and where, among other noted people, were buried Marryat, a well- 

'' Another of like origin — a place in the Forest of Harewood, in Hampshire — 
"The Deadman's Plack." The tradition is that King Edgar, in 963, here slew 
and buried a treacherous favourite. 

'' There is some doubt whether the burial-ground went to the almsfolk, or the 
almsfolk to the gi'oimd. Either way it was not a comfortable condition. 

^ ' Broadsides,' Society of Antiquaries, is a picture of one so buried, in a close- 
fitting cloth, tied at head and feet, neatly done, and date 1580 — a sort of forecast 
of Mr. Seymour Haden's wise proposals. 



226 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

known banker, and Cruden, of the ' Concordance.' This meeting- 
house was established about 162 1.' Here ditches abounded — not 
a particular feature of any one part of South London. In a sewers' 
presentment, 1640, are piles and boards obstructing the sewar in 
Deadman's Place, and hogs plenty, at hand. 1702, the vestry notes 
ground between the Park Gate and College Churchyard wharfed 
along by the common sewar, and abutting on the front, on the 
highway leading to Deadman's Place ; so the Park gate of our 
map still remained after 150 years. We know that the Anchor 
Brewhouse — Halsey's, Thrale's, and Barclay's — was and is here. A 
tradesman's token, 1688, shows the Red Hart Brewhouse. In fact, 
the brewhouses about here were thick as hops. In 1706 a lease is 
granted for a public-house of the well-known and notorious name 
Dog and Duck. Not unlikely that the sport so named was to be 
seen here. Long after, about this spot were considerable gardens 
and tenter-grounds ; and Bankside, from the earliest times on 
record, had been the most famous place known for rough and 
cruel sports. The Deadman's Place of the old map was then 
probably the site of a house of some former Desmonds"; and that 
at length, from the then use of the place, the name became Dead- 
man, and at length extended to the path shown in the map as " the 
way to the banck" — the way in fact to the Clink, the cucking- 
stool, the bear-gardens, and the stewes, from the Borough of 
South wark. 

Passing west across the High Street, by the foot of the bridge, 
is Beere Alley (Map, 3), already and sufficiently noticed in con- 
nexion with the " Bere [Bear] at the Bridge foot." Pepper Alley 
(Map, 6), a way to the Thames, leads to Pepper Alley Stairs. 
In 1599 the watermen's fares were id. for "over." To Lambeth 
and like distances " no whyrryman with a pare of ores to take for 
his fare from the olde swanne, peper alley, Saynt Mary Overies, 
above iiij(/." » Pepper Alley was finally cleared away with the old 

' London so little altered in the interval that the maps— Roque's, 1746, and 
Horwood's, 1799— show this place well, the former with quite a grove of trees 
along the entry. 

« The head of the great Irish leader, a later Desmond, was on London Bridge 
gate, toward Southwark, about 1583. 

' 'Broadsheets,' Society of Antiquaries. 



PEPPER ALLEY AND MONTAGUE CLOSE. 22/ 

bridge. A writer of 1691 notes here " stinks of all sorts, both 
simple and compound, which through narrow allies our senses do 
confound." Dr. Johnson, who was so much at home at the brewery 
close at hand, held that Pepper Alley was as healthy as Salisbury 
Plain, and much happier. Well, — yes, I have seen much happiness 
in the midst of dirt among pigs and people ; but the sweating 
sickness and the plague, duly recorded in the old death registers of 
St. Saviour's, tell another and a different tale. " Rownd a bowte 
us yt hath bene all most in every howsse, and wholle howsholdes 
deyed," says Henslow. Alleyn, prudent man in every way, writing 
to his " good sweete mouse," tells her, " though the sicknes be round 
about you, yett by his mercy itt may escape your house, which by 
the grace of God it shall, therfor use this corse : — keep your house 
fayr and clean, which I know you will, and every evening throwe 
water before your dore and at the bak sid, and have in your 
windowes good store of reue and herbe of grace, and with all the 
grace of god, which must be obtaynd by prayers ; and so doinge, 
no dout but the Lord will mercyfuUy defend you." ^ By the entrance 
of Pepper Alley was a favourite place for displaying the quarters 
of persons executed — the limbs below, the head above over the 
Bridge Gate. 

MONTAGUE CLOSE. 
In the map (4 and 5) are seen gates, one "to Close," nigh to 
the western church door of St. Saviour's, adjoining the dock and a 
place of landing shown in old maps ; another is east by Pepper 
Alley, and north of the church is a ready way to Pepper Alley 
Stairs, to the High Street or Long Southwark, and to London 
Bridge. The enclosure, of which these were the gates, belonged 
until the dissolution of religious houses to the monastery of St. 
Mary Overy ; it was the close, cloister, or private ground of that 
priory." The cloister was the square or space, in this instance 
snugly situated between the church and the river, built around 

' ' Memoirs of Alleyn, ' Shakespeare Society, 1841. 

* So late as 1795 both these doors are shut every evening at eleven o'clock, 
and at the corner of the doorway in Pepper Alley is a public-house having a pas- 
sage into the close, and through this upon payment of a halipenny passengers can 
pass when the gate is shut. Concanen and Morgan, 1795- 

Q 2 



228 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

mostly, forming- a complete enclosure. Here would be the church, 
chapter house, refectory, dormitory, and cloister. Here the com- 
plete inner life of the monks would be spent, peace in the midst of 
turmoil, for the times and the places immediately at hand were 
often given over to violence. The name of each place suggests its 
particular use. Stow tells us of a tradition delivered to him by 
Linsted, the last prior, who surrendered the house to the king, that 
there had been, long before the Conquest, a house of sisters here, 
afterwards converted into a college of priests. Probably it was 
just the place, near a ferry, likely to be selected. Stow is a re- 
markably truthful chronicler; this rests however on no other 
authority than his and that of the last prior, but that is likely to be 
enough. There is no doubt that in i io6 the old foundation, if 
foundation there had been, became renewed for canons regular of 
the order of St. Augustine by two Norman knights, and the Bishop 
Giffard, now returned from exile, greatly helped them, and in- 
deed built the nave of the church. It is on record that a stone 
house of William Pont d'Arch's,' at Dowgate, was a possession of 
the monastery. Destroyed by a great fire, 14th John, the priory 
was rebuilt in the course of time, Walter, Archbishop of York, in 
1273, granting thirty days' indulgence to all such as should con- 
tribute. Again there was a fire in the time of Richard II. The 
rule of St. Augustine was not a strict one, not for instance so 
strict as that of the Cluniacs of the neighbouring priory of Ber- 
mondsey. No man, however, was permitted to call anything his 
own, all was to be in common ; those admitted as brethren were 
to sell all, and have no selfish care for food or raiment, and other 
rules of the like kind, which may all be seen at length in Taylor.* 
The dress was a white tunic with a linen gown under a black cloak, 
and a hood. A splendid establishment in the city of these Augus- 
tines, founded in 1243, may be brought to mind by the name, as 
now, Austin Friars. One can scarcely realize the contrast of the 
life as it was in this enclosure, and the life that is now — then a resi- 
dence for those tired of the outer world, a safe retreat or sanctuary 
for people in time of trouble, a place for study and contemplation— 
now a noise of cranes, of steam, of waggons, and the free course 

' One of the Norman kniglils, foundei-s, 
■* 'Ann.ilsof St. Mary Oveiy,' p. 34. 



MONTAGUE CLOSE, 1470 AND 1870. 229 

in and out of heavy merchandise. The place was then of very 
insignificant money value ; a place for consuming and not for pro- 
duction. A visit now to the hotel, wharfs, chambers, and tall ware- 
houses which cover closely the old site, tells of many thousands 
instead of hundreds of annual income, fabulous to the old owners, 
the Montagues and the Overmans, if they could know. Not many 
years since a site in Southwark, near at hand, realized at the rate 
of not less than 300,000/. an acre. Some trifling discount may, 
however, be taken off, as in that earlier age, 1S94, butter was 
3|(f. per pound, and a lamb could be had for 5^. In 1514, John 
Bowyer, a butcher, sells eighteen oxen at 2,1s. 6d. each ; wages 
were from 2d. per day, with meat and drink, to ^d. and 2>d. with- 
out. Entering then the principal "gate to close " (Map, 4), a fine 
Gothic archway once,° we may reasonably fancy ourselves among 
the old buildings and among its ghostly residents. With a 
little further fancy, not fabulous, but of the true past, we may see 
Gower and his friend Chaucer pacing the cloisters together ; we 
may meet the poet, now blind, led by his wife Alice, greeted by 
all as their most kindly and liberal benefactor, yet living among 
them. We may see Fastolf, a neighbouring lord in the 15th cen- 
tury, conferring with Bishop Waynfleet as to the disposal of his 
vast possessions in charity, and for the welfare of his soul. 

According to a common provision of the time, donors sometimes 
secured to themselves a retreat, if wanted ; for instance, the prior 
and convent of St. Mary Overy were obliged to iind competent 
entertainment for the Earl of Gloucester and his heirs, when they 
should come thither .' 

At length, in 1539, the priory perishes along with other, reli- 
gious foundations ; everywhere Cromwell's agents are examining 
and making the most of the undoubted vilenesses which had long 
been known, but were now discovered openly. The good went 
with the bad, but no scandal appears against St. Mary Overy, — 
more remarkable because there was very much scandal against 
the neighbouring monastery at Bermondsey, notwithstanding its 
much more strict rules of life, — perhaps the unnatural tying down 

" Wilkinson's and many other plates. 
' Manning and Bray, vol. iii. 563, 



230 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

made the rebound more inevitable, for indeed sooner or later in 
most cases nature will have its way. Bermondsey Abbey, says 
Taylor, the water poet, rivalled the stews of the bank ; he naively 
remarks that " the Prior of Bermondsey had no more but twenty.'" 

Now came a grand scramble. Ben Jonson, who knew South- 
wark well, puts into the mouth of a character in the ' Poetaster' : 
" Ay, remember to beg the land betimes before some of the hungry 
court lords scent it out." "Begg'd some cast abbey in the 
churches wane," says Bishop Hall, in 1597. The scramble is well 
illustrated at St. Mary Overy and at Bermondsey Abbey. Sir 
Anthony Browne, 26 Henry VIII., requests to purchase demesne 
lands of the late priory of St. Mary Overy, with farms belonging 
thereto in Southwark, and he was a courtier close about the king. 
The particulars of the sale are at the Record Office in three parch- 
ments. The grant soon came of " the whole site of the enclosure 
encircling around the late Monastery or Priory of the Blessed Mary 
Overy in the county of Surrey, with the precincts, late in the 
tenure of Henry Delynger and others, and the brewhouse and 
houses in St. Mary Magdalen." This with much else was 
bestowed upon Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse, stan- 
dard bearer of England, and a special ambassador. Among the 
rest he had Waverley House, close at hand, which became 
saddler Cure's for charitable purposes, and is noted in connexion 
with the almshouses founded by him. 

In 1539, at the time the priory and its precincts changed hands 
— from the ecclesiastic to the layman, — it was the custom to reward 
those who submitted quietly ; sometimes the way was prepared 
by the appointment or encouragement of complying people, so to 
create as little adverse friction as possible. Accordingly Bartho- 
lomew Linsted, otherwise Fowle or Fowler, Stow's informant, 
who was elected prior in 1513, appears to have quietly surren- 
dered the priory and its possessions to the king, and is accordingly 
allowed to finish his life in ease and peace. " The Commissioners 

' Those who ^^•ish to see this from the point of rigid truth should read atten- 
tively Isaac Taylor's 'Fanaticism,' ed. 1833, pp. 126 et scq. They will see the 
cruelties and other vices which in some natures inevitably spring from the unrest 
coming apparently out of the enforced celibacy of the clergy. The book of 
nature and the book of revelation MUST be read together. 



OLD REMAINS, MONTAGUE CLOSE. 23 1 

assigned to Barthelmew ffowle,^ late prior, 100/., and to others 
from 8/. to 61. each, in all 1 70/. per annum, to be paid every half- 
year commencing at the feast of the annunciation of our Lady. It 
was also appointed that the late prior should have a house within 
the close, wherein Doctor Mychell now dwelleth, for the term of 
his life." Our map was made about the time of this arrangement, 
and no doubt the house (Map, 2) is the one referred to. If so, no 
extra suavity was shown in marking the bare word " fowler," 
pointing out the final retreat of the late prior. The Baptys House, 
near at hand, I cannot at present explain ; if any one can, I shall 
be glad to hear. 

Very interesting discoveries have been made here in Montague 
Close, even in the present century. Enough has been found of the 
remains of conventual buildings to give us a fair idea of the old 
priory. Happily for us who desire now and then to take a look 
into the past, to see what our fathers were about, and how they 
did their work, the remains were noted and described by competent 
observers — Carter, Carlos, and others ; and long since, in deep 
excavations, the workpeople came across curious old remains — ■ 
channels of remarkably good brickwork, in which, as I have been 
told, a man might get along. In 1797, and again in 1808, John 
Carter carefully inspected the remains of certain conventual 
buildings here. At this last date much change had come. The 
remaining priory buildings, in which the monks had dined and 
slept, had now become stables, stores for coals and for other rough 
goods ; or they were hidden behind rude erections for the same 
purposes. Carlos describes them in his paper in the Gentleman's 
Magazine, June, 183S, which is illustrated with lucid plan and 
plate. He describes an ancient crypt and foundations close to and 
extending from the north transept, in the same line ; the base- 
ment of a hall or gallery, probably the refectory of the priory, 
with a way now bricked up, between it and the cloisters, and with 
dormitories near. He considers this crypt ' to have been the one 

' Double letter used as a capital, fif for F. 

' Vide the ground-plan and elevation of conventual buildings in the plate at 
p. 157. There are also external views of the buildings, alteredand mutilated, but 
still characteristic, in the plate referred to, from the 'Antiquarian Itinerary,' 
and in Moss, So they have remained down very near to our own time, 



233 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

side of the court or quadrangle ; west of it were cloisters, probably 
embattled, and very early buildings ; the north front was open to 
the river. This building was 2 1 feet S inches from the transept of 
the church, the intervening space being used as a stable, divided 
transversely by a wall shown in the plan. Here were seen the 
remains of two arches of the time of Edward IV. The length of 
the building, north and south, was 95 feet by 33 wide.^ The hall, 
which was part of it, and above, had in 1795 an oaken roof, 
carved with representations of angels, a lantern light in the centre 
of the roof, and a large window at the end. The walls seem to 
have had paintings thereon. The vaults were supported by a rang^ 
of pillars, which, as they rose, formed angles in the roof. The roof 
was of small square stones. An old foundation, at a short distance 
east of the church, was discovered on the demolition of the houses 
for the approaches of the new bridge. West of the crypt was a 
wall extending westward 100 feet, and near it a well, bricked round 
and domed over. At this time of breaking up, fragments, Norman 
and of various later times, were discovered ; among the rest, an 
arch of a fireplace of the Tudor period. Here was probably the 
prior's house. The article in the Gentlemati's Magazine by Carter 
will well repay perusal. I have been so fortunate as to see a 
corrected ground-plan of this priory building, by Mr. Dollman, a 
skilled architect and an intelligent admirer of the old place, whose 
expected monograph of St. Mary Overy will be most cordially 
welcomed. 

In proceedings of the vestry, 1595, Mr. Brooker says he has the 
copy of the purchase of the parsonage lease and of the close by 
Lord Montague at the dissolution — a mistake of Mr. Brooker's, as 
Sir Anthony was the purchaser or recipient. It was his son who 
was, in 1554, created Lord Montague.'' It is now clear how the 
place came to be called Montague Close : close, from cloister ; 
Montague, from the family who obtained it. The local name is 
Montague, Montacute, or Monteagle — somewhat confounded 
although not always the same families. No one who reads the 
old manuscripts of the time, on phonetic principles, but will recog- 

' Tiler, p. 10. 

° Montague Peerage Claim, Mouse of Lords, 185 1, 



SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, THE MONTAGUES. 233 

nize the spelling, diverse, much as it might strike the ear of the 
listener, without surprise. The Offleys, or Hoffleys, for instance, 
as the H was put in or left out. Even Shakespeare's name is spelt 
in very many ways ; and these diverse spellings sometimes by the 
people themselves. 

The Montagues probably used the site of the prior's house, and 
no doubt, at first, much of the house itself ; and for some time the 
family had their town residence in the Close. In 1551 Sir Anthony 
Browne, the son, is sent to the Tower for mass. Time and the 
ruler change however, and Sir Anthony, as Lord Montague, is 
chief mourner to one who had been his next neighbour — Gardiner, 
Bishop of Winchester, of Winchester House. In 1556 Lord 
Montague is dating letters from Southwark. In 1575 the vestry 
of St. Saviour's is debating as to the dunghill at his lordship's gate. 
In 1584 the saddler to the Queen, Thomas Cure, and others make 
a search in the Close. In Mr. Browne's house they find a lord and 
lady and servants, fifteen in all, and many others near at hand. 
The Lady Vaux just before this, in 1582, is reported at mass at her 
lodgings in St. Mary Overie's. Some time after Lord Monteagle 
heads the list of subscribers for the poor Papist prisoners in the 
Clink — a prison not much more than a stone's throw from his own 
house. In 1 592 information is given, by one who afterwards went to 
it, of mass in Lord Montague's house at St. Mary Overy. In 1593, 
no doubt by way of making things pleasant, the vestry orders that a 
new door shall be made in the church wall, entering into my Lord 
Montacute's house, instead of the old door, which was stopped by 
some of the churchwardens without the consent of the rest.' This 
desire of the vestry was no doubt justified. The family are earnest, 
and true to their principles. I note a " booke of ordres and rules, 
established by me, Anthony Viscount Montague, for the better 
direction of my howsholde and family, together with the general 
dutyes and charges apperteyninge to myne officers and other 
servantes."* In 1597 Mr. Graye, a priest, was buried from the 

' This probably refers to the doorway, closed up, which led formerly into the 
west side of the cloister, anji after, when reopened, into Lord Montague's house. 
This doorway was Norman, and was probably part of the ancient structure — the 
prior's way into the church. See plan of St. Saviour's. 

■• Notes and Queries, 1st series, vol. viii. p. 540, 



234 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

olde Lady Montacute's house. In this year it is reported to the 
Government that Southwark is dangerously infected. In fact, this 
is mostly the normal state of Southwark under every dispensation. 
In 1598 there is void ground, " by the docke " and a tenement of 
Lord Montague's. In 1599 search is made in the house of the Lady 
Montague, a widow, but inhabiting the old place in the close, for 
gunpowder and arms ; but nothing is found. In 1600 the name of 
the Montagues comes in unpleasantly at the vestry. Mr. Humble, 
who appears to have been, contrary to his name, a hot-headed 
man, offers to lay a wager that the parish will not recover tithes of 
Lord Montague and other noted people ; and rather carried away 
by his feelings, he calls the churchwardens "Knaves and Rascalles."' 
Probably there was something in it, as on January 4th Mr. Browker 
speaks to the steward about the tithes of the Close. Matters do not 
mend with this family. No doubt they were getting poor. They 
seem to be much too uncompromising to be lucky." In 1624 an 
Act is obtained for raising a portion for a daughter, and for pay- 
ment of debts. The family does not prosper ; and soon after they 
disappear as Montagues in Southwark. But, as may be seen in 
the Montague Peerage Claim, many Brownes turn up. I note, in 
the handwriting of Mr. Corner, the solicitor to the claim, and the 
greatest local antiquarian we have had, the following : John 
Browne, a drysalter in 1672 ; Nathaniel Brown, an overseer in 
1676, and vestryman in 1687 ; John Browne, scavenger of the 
Clink in 1 700 ; Eleanor, seeking a pension in 1 702 ; Charles, the 
same year a candidate for the office of beadle ; and one of more 
consequence than any, through whose unconscious arteries the blue 
blood is supposed to be still running, by this time much mixed and 
diluted, Charles Browne, the "dear Charles" of Eliza Montague, 
who writes to him as Monsieur de Brown, Rue Marchand de Poisson, 
le Fauxbourg de Southwark — in plain English, Mr. Brown, of Fish- 

^ Vestry minutes. 

" The Dowager Jane Montague, whose husband Anthony died at Montague 
House in 1629, petitioned the Lords in 1645 (Journals), when her recusant, 
" Papist, and malignant" son was abroad, stating that she was a Protestant, and 
had always shown good affection to the Parliament. Her husband and son appear 
to have been indiscreet Catholics. She did succeed, however, with much tact, but 
with difficulty, in saving some of the family estates from sequestration. — 'Montague 
Peerage Claim,' pp. 5, 6, 88. 



MONTEAGLE HOUSE AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 235 

monger's Alley, Southwark. All these were presumably of the 
Montague family, and all lived in St. Saviour's, Southwark. The 
name of Brown is not very uncommon, but I may give, among the 
rest, Robert Browne, a player, and Elizabeth his wife, 1600 ; 
Edward Browne, a player, 1596, of Shakespeare's time, who no 
doubt saw him face to face. By the middle of the seventeenth 
century, or before, the Close must have become unfit for the 
Montagues, even in their faded fortunes. In accordance with 
inevitable change, the house became at length divided into many 
tenements. The picture and a ground-plan, in Wilkinson, ' Lond. 
Illust.,' will show its appearance, extent, and position early in this 
century.' In the token-books^ of the parish, 1600, against Pepper 
Alley, twenty-four names appear of persons attending the sacra- 
ment ; from the Close, forty -five ; Waverley House, seventy-seven, 
and so on. In 1612 many names appear from Montague House. 
In 1624 are noted new brick tenements ; dye-houses, two new and 
two older, and another dye-house and a wood-yard in Montague 
Close. Pepper Alley, Montague Close, and like places back from 
the great thoroughfares were places of refuge for people flying for 
religion's sake, mainly French and Dutch, who in these parts bided 
quietly and practised their callings. Searches were often made, and 
lists given of these refugees. Ihave noted three only, in iS7i, 1S84, 
and 1586. There are many such at the Record Office, Fetter Lane. 
A story got about, and was generally believed, that Monteagle 
House became celebrated, as the place to which the message was 
sent discovering the Gunpowder Plot, and that the Close as a 
sanctuary or privileged place was made so on account of this dis- 
covery. The Monteagle House to which this story refers was of the 
time of James I. ; the one referred to as taken down in connexion 
with the approaches of the new London Bridge, in 183I-2, was 
not more than about a hundred years old. 

' And in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1808. 

' Token-Books, St. Saviour's. That for 1588 notices people "caught 
Drinkinge at Servis Tyme.'' 1628. "Names of communicants and tokens 
delivered." 1596, and after years, John Fletcher's name appears with many 
another actor and writer of Shakespeare's time. These valuable records are 
becoming — some lost, others imperfect, and many mutilated. I hope to be per- 
mitted to go through them and to write a short paper as to their most interesting 
contents, 



236 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

It is not quite clear when the property here passed from the 
Montag-ue family, although the process of their insecure holding, 
on account of religious and other suspected disaffection, is clear 
enough. In 1642-3, the Parliamentary leaders voted a committee 
for sequestrations, and wherever power or fair excuse gave them 
warrant, they seized the estates and revenues of the King's party. 
Lord Montague, being a Catholic and a Royalist, came under the 
operation of the vote. It is not likely that his house in Southwark 
escaped. In 1653 the estates were again sequestrated; the dow- 
ager countess with much difficulty saving some, by having leases 
made to herself,' and by professing loyalty to the power in esse. 
The Overmans were now becoming a prominent family in South- 
wark, witness the sermon already noticed, ' Live Well and Die 
Well,' written for the burial of Mrs. Mary Overman in 164^. The 
seizure of the preacher and the prevention of the funeral sermon, 
published 1646, was one of the squabbles perpetually turning up on 
religious matters in these disturbed times. In this case the sec- 
taries are uppermost, and the High Church, if so we may call it, to 
which Benjamin Spencer belonged, was down. But it was " all 
alike." The Puritans proved as intolerant and as intermeddling as 
Laud, says Hallam, and may I add. Laud as the Puritans. My 
Southwark notes show Papists, Puritans, and any others who made 
themselves very prominent in times adverse to their particular 
forms, immured in the Southwark gaols, or passing along our 
High Street, to hanging at St. Thomas a Watering, or to burning 
in the highway or in St. George's Fields; the principle of the 
times being conversion by fear as opposed to the new command- 
ment which our Lord Himself taught. The Overmans left their 
mark' : out of their property hereabout, which comprised about sixty 
houses and four wharfs, almshouses were founded and left, and 

° Montague Peerage Case, 1851. 

' Manning and Bray. I add from the Fire decrees, re fij\\ 1677. jVrontagiie 
Close, 1678. Great gates, privy, pumpe, shedd, warehouses ; Thomas Overmans, 
Hester Overman, widow. Thomas Ovennan, gentleman, did demise to Chris- 
topher Marshall the above, with a cartway. Mai-shall did pull down old and 
build new warehouses, at a cost of 150/. Six of the messuages were shattered by 
blowing up the neighbouring premises ; we see how near to danger the church 
was. The repairs cost 70/. Overman will not contribute. Judgment, that he is 
to contribute two-thirds of the cost. 



MONTAGUE CLOSE A SANCTUARY. 237 

these still remain, a quaint old fact among; the new, in their queer 
corner down below by the Lady Chapel of St. Saviour's. One 
wonders why the poor almspeople are still kept in this dismal 
corner, between the cheese warehouses, on the one hand, and 
the church on the other, when convenient arrangements, so much 
better for all parties, might be made. 

"By an established law founded on very ancient superstition, 
the precincts of a church afforded sanctuary to accused persons." ^ 
This, and not the fancied connexion with the Gunpowder Plot, 
was the origin of the sanctuary customs of Montague Close, " pre- 
tended privileges altogether scandalous and unwarrantable," as 
late Acts (8th and gth year William III., and 9th year of George I.) 
designate them. So early as the 13th century a man who had 
killed another took refuge here in the church of St. Mary Magda- 
len Overy.' In 1656 John Smith, Gent., sends forth ' The Mysterie 
of Rhetorick unveiled,' " from my chamber in Montague Close, 
Southwark." Possibly, as a scholar, this privileged retreat might 
have been for him quiet and secure, from troublesome creditors as 
well as from distracting noises. In a quaint book, 1623, by 
Thomas Powel, entitled, ' Wheresoever you see mee, Trust unto 
yourself — or the Mystery of Lending and Borrowing,' the im- 
poverished man is made to say, " I can stay no longer here (some- 
where in the city) with good name and fame, and therefore I 
returne to my waterman attending all this while, who is to set me 
over to Southwarke, and land mee at an excellent hold indeed, 
commonly called Montague Close, sometime the scite of the 
monastery of St. Saviour's near the Bridge." This is one of the 
many very handy refuges noted in the book, to be easily got 
at by boat landing you at Pepper Alley Stairs. There were 
many authors in the Mint, in Whitefriars, and elsewhere. Pro- 
bably then John Smith, Gent., was an impecunious author at his 
lodgings in Montague Close. Cold Harbour, opposite, was a 
refuge of the same sort. Powel's book tells of " the sundry waies 
and weapons with which the debtors fence with their creditors." 
He gives a list of many noted places of temporary retirement. 

= Hallara, ' Middle Ages. ' 
^ Riley, 'Mem, Lond.,' p. 3, 



238 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Page 176 tells of watch and ward to prevent surprise, which watch 
and ward was, in modern phrase, a " caution " to intruders. Page 
202, How the cautious debtor hath a list of all the taverns, espe- 
cially by the water side, with back doors. Page 29, he gives 
good account of the supplies here, " no whit inferior to Ram Alley," 
which was saying a good deal, as Ram Alley, in Fleet Street, was, 
in 161 1, reputed to stink with cooks and ale. There were in those 
times many good places of resort for folks with scanty credit, and 
it was by no means easy to pick up a debtor who did not wish to 
pay. Even the officers of the law were hardly treated, buffeted, 
that is, pumped upon, and, as credibly reported, made to kiss a 
filthy brick, and swear upon it, to come no more thither without 
leave.* 

SAINT OLAVE'S CHURCH. 

In the map (25), synte toulus ; and in the various wording of the 
times, Sentt Tollos in 1558; S. Towleyes in John Norden's map, 
1 593 ; and so on, spelled any way, but mostly as it might strike 
the ear of any one. The church was dedicated to Saint Olaf. Its 
corruption into Tooley may be at once understood by pronouncing 
the words St. Olaf quickly. In like manner, the lane along which 
the processions went to the shrine of St. Audrey, in Ely Cathedral, 
became known as Tawdry Lane. So Saint Olave became Tolave, 
or Tooley ; Saint Antony became Tantony ; Saint Alphyns 
(Alphage), Taphyns ; Sentte Anne, Tanys, &c. 

This Olaf was a Northman, and ally of our King Ethelred — a 
soldier of fortune, who became King of Norway. A great exploit 
of his, connected with a battle of Southwark,^ in 1008, is thus 
related : " Olaf the King and his Norsemen having rowed their 
ships close up to the Bridge [London], made them fast to the piles 
with ropes and cables, with which they strained them ; and the tide 
seconding their united efforts, the piles gradually gave way, and 
were withdrawn from under the Bridge. So it brake down, and 

' ' A True Description of the Mint,' where this hunting of the officers took place. 

' ' ' Upon the other side of the river is situate a great market called Southwark 
— Sudui-virke in the original — which the Danes fortified with many defences. " — 
Icelandish authority cited in ' Chronicles of London Bridge,' by R. Thomson, ed, 
1827, p. 21, 



SAINT OLAF OR OLAVE. 239 

involved the ruin of many. And now it was determined to attack 
Southwark ; but the citizens, seeing their River Thames occupied 
by the enemies' navies, were seized with fear, and, having surren- 
dered the city, received Ethelred as King." 

This soldier of fortune, Olaf, was a Christian missionary, after 
the manner of his time. Unconscious of this as he probably is, he 
has the honour of a somewhat laudatory sketch at the hands of 
Thomas Carlyle.' His adhesion to the Christian faith was intense. 
Deeply pious, he laboured and succeeded in spreading Christianity, 
and abolishing Viking practices and idols ; but, as his method was 
by no means soft, the people lapsed, and at length killed him. 
Awaked from a dream, while on the last step of the imagined 
ladder, and about to enter heaven, he had to make ready for his 
last fight, which he began with religious services — " a matin wor- 
ship such as there have been few." The fight went against him, 
and he was killed. His body was carried to an outhouse of a 
neighbouring farm. A blind beggar crept in for shelter ; and, as 
the miraculous influences had already begun, the beggar received 
his sight. Many miracles were done in Olaf's name, not in Norway 
or all Christendom only, then and for a long time after. " This holy 
friend of Christ, this most innocent King, was murdered in the year 
1030 ; and it was commanded that he should be honoured as a 
saint, with the title of Martyr."' A modern critic in the Athenaum 
thinks that Olaf was not much better than "a lawless ruffian," 
who, in a holy cause, plundered and destroyed the pagan peoples. 
We must not expect too much. Olaf and his like were but men 
and women, after all. The lives of the saints are, with the most 
charitable judgment, not too often in accord with the Sermon on 
the Mount According to the lights of the time, and what was 
believed of this saint, nothing is more natural than that churches 
should be built in his honour, and that his life should be acted or 
read upon his saint's day,' and his statue set up.° Such was St. 

^ ' Early Kings of Norway,' Fraser's Mag., 1875. 

' Newcourt, cited in Thomson, ' London Bridge, 'p. 27. 

» In the year 1577, at the church in Silver Street, on the holiday of St. Olave, 
its patron saint, "the miraculous life of St. Olave" was celebrated, with great 
solemnity. The celebration began at eight in the evening, and continued for four 
hours. — Hone, ' Every-Day Book,' June 2nd. 

' The statue of St. Towle was removed from the church in Southwark at the 



240 OLD SOUTHWARK AND iTS PEOPLE. 

Olave, to whose memory no less than four churches in London are 
dedicated. 

It is impossible to say when the first church was built ; but Peter 
Bishop of Winchester, who g-overned the see in 1205, appropriated 
the church of St. Olave's, Southwark, to the Prior and Convent of 
St. Pancras, of Lewes, for the purposes of hospitality.^ It is noted in a 
grant of an Earl Warren to the Abbot of St. Augustine, Canterbury, 
made in 128 1. Another passage '^ : " It was confirmed by William, 
second Earl of Warren and Surrey, to the Prior of St. Pancras, at 
Lewes, by a charter to which the name of Gundulph, Bishop of Ro- 
chester, appears as one of the witnesses." The church of St. Olave's 
was from time immemorial an ecclesiastical rectory. In the taxation 
of Pope Nicholas, 1 291, is an entry implying that Earl Warren had 
bestowed the advowson on the alien priory of Lewes. In the general 
ecclesiastical survey, 1535 — that is, about the time of our map — the 
Rectory is returned thus : " George Wyndham, Clerk, Rector there. 
It is valued clearly by the year, with all its profits and commodities, 
besides "js. y^d. paid to the Bishop of Winton for Sinodals, ys. y\d. 
paid to the archdeacon of Surrey for procurations yearly, and 4/. 
paid to the prior of Lewes for a • certain annual and perpetual 
pension of the said Rectory, due at Easter, 68^. 4s. gd. Tenth 
thereof, 6/. i6s. sf(f."' 

The church had four aisles and chapels, dedicated to our Lady, 
St. Clement, St. Anne, and St. Barbara ; and altars — among the 
rest, one to St. John. One of the four aisles, which fell down in 
1736, was called St. Anne's aisle ; and in it was a chapel and an 
altar dedicated to the saint. Religious associations of brethren and 
systars were attached to the church. The systars of Sentte Tanys 
gave a challys of 1 1 onzys, qtr. and d,qtr. Of these fraternities I 
shall presently speak more particularly. 

Reformation, and was restored in the time of Queen Maiy. In the churchwardens' 
accounts, 1556-1558, are these entries : It'm, paid to John Carowe for making a 
septor and an axe for S'. Towle, iijj-. viij^. It'm, paid to Modyn for Saint Olyff, 
XXXJ-. It'm, p" more for din'^ when he set hym up, \]s. vn]c/. 1466, John Burcestre, 
1-cnight, in his will bequeaths and recommends his soul to almighty God and the 
blessed Lady, and his body to bo buried in the wall beside the holy King, S'. Olave. 

' Archtvologia, vol. xxiii. 

^ Ibid., vol. xxxviii. p. 39, vol. xxiii. p. 299. 

' MS. Additional, 24327, B. Museum, 



OLD CHURCH PROPERTIES, ST. OLAVE'S. 24 1 

At the Reformation the accumulated riches of the church were 
confiscated ; commissioners were now appointed, and inventories of 
church properties were made from time to time. 6 Edward VI., 
16 May, 1552, a commission was issued for an inventory of all 
goods belonging to churches, chapels, gilds, brotherhoods, or fra- 
ternities, comprising jewels, vestments, bells, and the like, and that 
the same should be in safe keeping of persons who should produce 
them. Much was embezzled, or, as the owners might say, saved 
out of the fire. In this inventory of 1552 are 700 ozs. of plate, and 
notably a pix, chrismatory, cruet, pax, cross, chalice, candlesticks ; 
a gospeller book garnished with silver, parcel gilt with Mary and 
St. John, a pistiler book with Peter and Paul, copes blue and red 
and ornamented with gold ; vestments — among others one of red 
velvet with Jesus in gold, altar cloths of blue velvet and gold, and 
of white damask, and five great bells hanging in the steeple.^ In 
that of 1558 also are items most curiously interesting.* This in- 
ventory was made by the old Chyrehe wardyns of the paryshe of 
Sentt Tolos in Sothewarke for the new wardens, among whom was 
Oliff Burr, twice a member of parliament for Southwark, 5th and 
14th Elizabeth, and a first governor of St. Olave's Grammar 
School. In this list is noted a vestment given by Sir Anthony Sel- 
lynger. Knight (St. Leger) (whose name is preserved to our own 
time in Sellinger's Wharf) ; a sute of vestments of red velvet 
wrought with angels and spread eagles, which were Mr. Lek's 
(a brewer of German descent, who more than any other was the 
founder of the Grammar School) ; altar cloths, one with a cru- 
cifix, the ruthar w'' Sent Clement and ankers. There was a fra- 
ternity of the Brotherhood of St. Clement of this church, and one 
of the four aisles, in which were a chapel and altar, was dedicated 
to this saint, the saint of blacksmiths, notably of mariners' black- 
smiths,* likely to be adopted in St. Olave's, a parish at the time 
particularly connected with the sea and the trades dependent 
thereon. In C. R. Smith's collections is a token with an inscrip- 
tion, " Will Ellis at the St. Clement in Tooley Street '' ; it has a St. 

* ' Surrey Archaeological Collections,' vol. iv. 

"■ G. R. Comer, Gent, Mag., May, 1837, where may be seen also an explana- 
tion of the terms used in the inventories. 

* Hone, 'Every-Day Book,' vol. i. pp. 1497-8. 

R 



242 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Clement seated, wearing a mitre, resting on an anchor and hold- 
ing in the right hand an episcopal staff. 

In the parish books of St. Olave's (date before the Reformation) 
is frequent mention of our Lady's brethren, St. Clement's brethren, 
St. Anne's sisters, and others. Anthony Michael, of the parish of 
St. Olave the King in. Southwarlc, in i SOO, gives by will to the 
fraternity commonly called of the Virgin Mary, i2d. ; of St. Anne, 
8d. ; of St. Clement, Sd. ; of St. Barbara, a book called the Life of 
Jesus, to remain in the chapel of St, Barbara, for the use of the 
brethren of the fraternity willing to read therein.' In 1526, a will 
of Will Sharparowe, of Southwark, miller, orders, that he is to be 
buried in the St. Anne's isle, within St. Olave's Church — a marble 
stone is to be set over him, with latten or copper images of himself, 
his wife, and children. Bequests are left to the altar of the church, 
to the brotherhood of Our Lady and St. Clement, and to St. Anne's 
sisterhood, and to the rood-light. Further bequests for three 
trentals of masses, two at St. Olave's — for a priest to say masses 
for a year at St. Olave's, for himself, his father, mother, and chil- 
dren, yl. 6s. 8d. 

The gilds, or brotherhoods, were for diverse purposes ; but usually 
they were associations for mutual help in temporal and spiritual 
matters, and for the welfare of the church. They were commonly 
necessary in times when individuals were weak, when the law was 
weak, and when certain classes were strong and almost lawless. 
The gilds, first founded in England in the eighth century,' were the 
precursors of benefit societies, burial clubs, modern class meetings, 
trades' unions, city companies, and what not. At length, becoming 
tainted with riches, and with that which follows, i.e. corruption, and, 
from their secret ramifications and power, troublesome, they were 
at the Reformation shaken to pieces." A Society of Jesus, already 
noted, was a power in St. Olave's. This society was founded for 
the maintenance of a chantry priest to pray for the brotherhood, 
and for other purposes, It no doubt extended its duties outside that 

' Manning and Bray, ' Surrey, ' vol. iii. p. 607. 
Edinbiirglt. Review, 1871. 

° For indications as lo their wealtli, position, and influence, see a charming 
worlt by the late Toidmin Smith, edited by his daughter, ' English Gilds,' pub- 
lished by the Early English Text Society, 1870, 



FITFUL CHANGES IN RELIGIOUS FORMS. 243 

limited scope. Machyn, ' Diary,' notes at a burial, in 1558, " alle 
the bredurne of Jhesus, in saten hodes, and Jhs apone them." It 
was the custom of the gilds to join, under penalty for defaults, in 
the burial service on the death of brethren and sustren, and to 
make offering's. Jesus House, in St. Olave's, is already noted. 
One day at least in the year was devoted to festivities, usually the 
day of the saint to whom the gfild was dedicated. The brethren 
and sisters — for women were admitted, and held not unimportant 
positions in them — being all assembled, worshipped together,' gave 
their alms, and feasted, "for the nourishing of brotherly love." 
This, partly at the church, partly at their gild-house or hall, or at 
each other's houses. A Gild of Our Lady was established at St. 
Margaret's and at St. Saviour's, and a Gild of Brethren and Sisters 
at St. George's — all in Southwark. The constant changes in con- 
nexion with religion just now must have seriously perplexed the 
people : under Henry, a doubt as to which way it might go — for 
Popery, or ' against it ; under Edward, for a short time, a severe 
run against Popery ; under Mary, as severe a run in favour ; under 
Elizabeth, a severe run against any who attempted, under religious 
pretexts, to damage the authority of the Queen, or to threaten her 
with peril ; this with an especial leaning toward severity against 
Papists after the promulgation of the Pope's bull against the Queen. 
How often we notice scenes of violence and absurd manifestations 
of changes of opinion in connexion with these old forms of religion ! 

' Take, for instance, as specimens of like worship, "Also we sal beseke for 
y frutte y' is on ye herthe yat God send it soche weduiynge y' may tm-ne cristen 
men to profyt, and ffor schippmen and for al men yat trauayle, be se and be land : 
also beseke Jhesu mercy for oiire fadere saules, and for oure modere saules, .... 
and for al ye brethere saules and sisturres yat to yis fraternitee longes, and mayn- 

teynen in ye worschipp of oure Lady Godes helpe be among us. Amen. " 

This brotherhood consisted of thirteen brothers and fifteen sisters — seven of them 
men, and their wives, and one Elena Williams, Ji/ia. The object of one gild was to 
obtain, by the prayers of holy Church, the safety after death of the souls of the 
faithful ; of others, to favour education and to found schools ; of another ( Geni. 
Mag., February, 1835), to admit into the gild the souls of persons deceased — a 
beautiful idea, that our friends are, even after death, with us on festival occasions ! 
It was usual on admission that a brother or suster should, in token of love, charity, 
and peace, "kusse" every other of the gild that be there. Among gild sports may 
be noted the hunting of the Gild Bull, at Stamford.—' English Gilds,' p. 192. 

R 2 



244 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Among- the rest, in 1560 the minister Harold, at St. Towley's, did 
christen a child without a godfather ; and the midwife asked him 
how he could do it, and he said it was but a ceremony.'' No- 
thing but a general ecclesiastical confusion could have given 
rise to a scene like that, unless, indeed, which might be pro- 
bable, such a Gallio was safer than true and sternly conscientious 
believers. 

By the side of the church, between that and the bridge, was 
Saint Towley's Stairs. Here as elsewhere, I note a common occur- 
rence — the landing of pirates, to be in due course executed ; and I 
note the frequent landing of drowned people. In 1SS2, " six men 
drowned, buried at St. Towllys Churchyard." In a view of London 
Bridge — Norden's, temp. Elizabeth — boats are seen "shooting" the 
narrow and dangerous channels and falls of the bridge. People 
are seen struggling in the water. In 1429 the Duke of Norfolk is 
passing from St. Mary Overie's Stairs through London Bridge, at 
four or five at night. His barge stuck on the piles. Thirty were 
drowned, the duke and two or three more escaping by ropes let 
down to them.' Down to the last days of the old bridge, in our 
own time, like accidents were common. One look at pictures of 
the old bridge explains it all. There was a very touching and 
picturesque scene at St. "TowUy's" on the 29th March, 1563,* which 
I cannot pass over. " The Lady Lane, brought from the late abbey 
of St. Saviour's, Bermondsey, ded in childbirth. The corpse was 
borne by six women ; and many mourners, and much pomp ; and 
the sermon was preached by Master Coverdale." 

SMIT'S ALLEY AND WALNUT TREE ALLEY. 

The imposing -looking building by Smit's Alley (Map, 29) was no 
doubt a place of importance. It may have been the house or inn 
called the Gatehouse, which was mentioned in deed after deed 
from the time of Edward III., and was vested in the Gild of Jesus. 
Ultimately falling to the parish, it became a vestry hall and 
grammar school. " In 1509 William Aylove and Ethelred his wife 

'■' Macliyn, 'Diary.' 
•■ Stow, 'Annals.' 
' Machyn, p. 303. 



CHURCH YARD ALLEY. 24S 

held Smythes Alley, in Southwark";^ and no other Smith's Alley 
is noted. 

The locality soon becomes confused, and the names often changfe : 
such as Church Yard Alley, Walnut Tree Court, and the like — all 
significant as connected with places and buildings of importance 
then and in the after-time. 

A piece of ground here, which was consecrated, was in 1520 
conveyed by Richard Panell and others to Richard Denton, clerk 
and rector of St. Olave's, for the use of the church and for a 
cemetery. Hence, no doubt, the name of Church Yard Alley. 
One advantage the old names had, that they called a spade a 
spade, and we know the uses and characteristics of the spot — a 
Dirty Lane, a Thieves' Lane, or a " Nest " not far off, which by 
its title must have been a very immoral nest indeed, but which 
even so late as Rocque's Map, in 1746, is named after the occupa- 
tion of its female inhabitants. This grant of ground to Richard 
Denton was confirmed i Edward VL The actual grant is lost ; 
but the parish books show that the land was in possession in 1546 
' — the time of our map. The older burying-ground abutted on the 
Thames, and is shown, with its picturesque tombstones, in a plate 
of the church published so late as 18 14. In a grant of the White 
Lyon, not the prison, to Robert Curzon, the new cemetery is noted 
as a boundary — " the White Lyon, between the cemetery and the 
High Street." Robert Curzon is the same man who gave lOO 
marks for tenements in the Berghene — properties forfeited and 
sold in the general break-up of ecclesiastical possessions. What 
associations are suggested, now effectually covered by the railway 
buildings and approaches ! So the times pass and change ; and 
instead of splendid shows, grim warriors, gorgeous ecclesiastics, 
miracle plays, and processions in the streets, with here and there 
bull-rings, pillories, and gibbets, which were more or less always 
before the eyes of the people of Southwark, we have a throng of 
thousands marching over the spot for daily and peaceful business. 
The small spot of ground, comprising about 120 yards square, 

^ 'Rolls Calendars,' 1520; Archceologia, vol. xxxviii. The authorities chiefly 
used for this article are Stow, ' Survey ' ; Aj-chceologia, vols, xxiii, xxv, xxvii. , 
articles by Gage Rokev^oode, Gwilt, Jun., and Comer, 



246 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

opposite St, Olave's Church, across the street to the south, may 
well claim our attention, as full of historical associations, very old 
and very interesting. It is quite covered up now — in some parts 
far below the surface and out of sight, under the houses running 
up from Tooley Street to the present London Bridge, and under 
the highways which lead up to the railways. 

This space was once occupied, northerly, by the White Lyon Inn, 
by the Boar's Head — Sir John Fastolf s — by the Chequers and the 
Ship ; earlier far, so say our best authorities, by the great dwelling 
of Earl Godwin, which, with the township, fell to the Warrens at 
the Conquest, when they became lords of Southwark ; by the 
prison of the liberty, then little more than St. Olave's parish, 
which liberty was then the Borough ; by the gild-house of the 
Brothers and Sisters of Jesus of St. Olave's ; by the first Eliza- 
bethan Grammar School of St. Olave's ; by the additional church- 
yard for the parish, and the burial-ground for the Flemish and 
other refugees, from whom it had the name of the Flemish Burial- 
Ground. From Earl Godwin's house to the Flemish Ground it was 
all in or about Smit's Alley. Then the Abbot of Lewis had his 
London lodging or inn here, his gardens extending to the White 
Lyon. This house was in Walnut Tree Alley, which alley became 
afterwards Carter Street. Between Church Yard — that is, Smit's 
Alley — and Walnut Tree Alley was the Cage, which became 
Beston's Ground in iSS4- This Adam Beston was, in 1SS4, con- 
cerned with lands which afterwards fell to the school. 

Walnut Tree Alley* was situate exactly midway opposite and 
south of St. Olave's Church, across Tooley Street in Short South- 
wark. The alley was so called from a number of walnut trees 
which stood hereabout, and from a common hosterie for travellers 
which had this sign in 1598. Here was or had been the town 
lodging of the Prior of Lewes — town lodging, as Stow says. 
According to our modern notions, lodging is a modest name for a 
great house built of stone, with arched gates — " my poor house," 
as the prior might smilingly say in the manner of the time. The 

" MS. 'Thomas Hospital,' 9th June, 1572. "Mr. Ware is ordered- to survey 
Ihe gardeyns of Mr. Wylson, to se what Irespasse he hath comytted by cutting 
downe of a walnut tree or other trees there." Walnut Tree Alley adjoined the 
hospital easterly. 



WALNUT TREE ALLEY AND INN. 247 

architectural remains — beautiful, solid, and strong — which have 
been brought to light, and explained by most competent modern 
observers, make this spot a most interesting study. In 18 13 the 
crypt of the prior's house was used as a cider cellar or warehouse. 
In 1 83 1 a foot of one of the piers of the gateway was found east, 
in Carter Lane ; and sp, ex pede Herculem, we may judge of the 
whole. The remains were found in the square of a site bounded 
west by the old High Street, north by Tooley Street, east by Joiner 
Street, and south by the Ship Inn Yard. This spot, with these 
boundaries, cannot be seen in the present maps ; but in those 
before 1830, and especially in Horwood's, 1799, it may be clearly 
made out. The Prior of Lewes had no town house in 1 180. The 
Anglo-Norman buildings (described by Mr. Rokewoode, vol. xxiii. 
Archaologia) on this spot point to the original mansion or manor- 
house of Earl Warren and Surrey, the lord of Old Southwark. 
From its Norman style it was probably built by William, the first 
earl, or his son. Earl Godwin, temp. Edward the Confessor, had a 
place here. 

These possessions, like as a large part of the kingdom, in time 
passed into the hands of the Church.^ The process was general, 
and the causes natural enough. Afterwards, at the general dis- 
gorgement — that is, at the dissolution — this property passed in fee 
to Cromwell, the destroyer of the monasteries. The hostelry of 
the Walnut Tree was then valued to the king at 8/. yearly. On 
the fall of Essex the hostelry seems to have been parcelled out by 
the Crown to, among others, in 1554, Adam Beston, from whose 
family it passed, in 1 582, to a City company and to Robert Curzon, 
noted under Smit's Alley. The Walnut Tree Inn occupied the east 
side of the hostelry. The building to the west, surveyed by Mr. 
Gwilt (^Archaologia, vol. xxv.), was afterwards purchased by the 
parish for the use of the grammar school, which was founded the 
1 3th Elizabeth. 

As to the old remains,' — in consequence of more extensive ap- 

' In 1085 it was found that England contained property known as knights' 
fees 62,215, ^"'i th^' 'lis Church held of these 28,015. This went on increasing, 
until at length nearly half the land of England was in the hands of the Church, 
and the statutes of mortmain became necessary. — Hallam, 'Middle Ages,' 
ch. vii. &c, 



248 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

proaches required for the new London Bridg-e it became necessary 
to level these buildings. At this time Mr. Rokewoode's careful draw- 
ings were made. The massive character and circular style imply 
that the buildings were here before 1 170. He describes a porch of 
nineteen feet or more, a vaulted chamber of forty feet, with strong 
pillars and arches, and a hall above — all with evidences of great 
strength, with some beauty of form and with architectural details, 
and with ornaments of the earlier Saxon or Anglo-Norman period. It 
was so arranged as apparently to guard against river-floods, which, 
from imperfect embankments, were not uncommon,' the entry steps 
of the porch being at a level above the floor of the vaulted chamber. 
The details are clearly illustrated by finished engravings in the 
paper, Archaologia, vol. xxiii. — a book easily to be seen at the City 
and other libraries. Roman tiles, relics of a time long prior to 
this, were found worked in the building, among other material, 
Roman coins and tradesmen's tokens of late dates were found in 
the rubbish under the schoolroom. The school building was at 
the south end of Church Yard Alley— the " Smits Alle " of the 
map. North in our selected site, and opposite the church, was 
" The Cage." 

A house called the Cage, with one acre and three roods of land 
belonging, 22 Richard II., to the office of earl's bailiff in South- 
wark, was no doubt the town prison, or at least a house of deten- 
tion. And part of the one acre three roods became ultimately the 
Flemish burying-ground. " A cage " would imply a temporary or 
local prison, or a secure standing-place for safe keeping, or even 
for exposure, of the culprit. In editions of Fox is a picture, iemp. 
1 5 5S) of a cage and stocks on London Bridge, within it a sturdy 
woman, standing and facing the people. Her offence was, she 
refused to pray for the Pope, for, said she, he is cleane himselfe 

^ In the ' Bermondsey Annals,' in Stow and others, is frequent mention of 
floods, e.g., 120S, Bermondsey overflowed ; 1242, floods drowning houses and 
fields ; 1555, people travelling by boats from Newington to St. George's. And 
as we ourselves know something of it, what must it have been when houses were 
built some ten feet below the present surface, and when we find a landing or jetty 
from the Thames some feet below even that ? The embankment was, howevei-, 
carefully watched. An engraving, in possession of the Antiquarian Society, of the 
time of Edward VI. rudely shows a veiy high river-wall in Southwark, 



THE CAGE AND GATEEEOUSE, ST. OLAVE'S. 249 

and can forgive us, and needeth not my prayers. In 1503, cages 
and stocks were ordered to be set up in every ward of the City. 
In 1592, " William Cuckoe " ('KindHartes Dreame ') hears "a 
counter tenor singing by the Cage in Southwarl<.e." In 1620, the 
Commission of Sewars, reporting of the Clink, orders a grate of 
iron between the Cage and the passage there. In 1732 the St. 
Saviour's vestry resolve that the place fixed upon for building the 
Cage is inconvenient, and in certain deeds which I was permitted 
to see at the Brewery in Park Street, " a gate house " near to the 
Globe Theatre is noted. 

Cages were everywhere handy. The Cage, however, either 
merged into, or only supplemented the " Gatehouse," which was, 
we may fairly presume, the Southwark prison long before the 
time of Taylor, the water poet. In 1630, a time of more advanced 
civilization, and therefore requiring, as it seems, more prisons, he 
tells us that now "Five Jayles or prisons are in Southwarke 
placed, I The Counter (once St. Margret's church defac'd), | The 
Marshalsea, the Kings Bench, and White Lyon — | Then ther 's 
the Clinke, where handsome lodgings be | And much good may it 

doe them all, for me. | In London and within a mile I weene | 

There are of Jayles or prisons full eighteene, | And sixty whipping 
posts and Stocks and Cages | Where sin and shame and sorrow 
hath due wages." | So that Southwark had its full proportion in 
1630. 

The Gatehouse, or first prison proper of Southwark, was within 
our selected site. A house, date 1632, with its garden and trees, 
is shown in an illustration of Mr. Corner's, from Vanden Hoeye -^ 
and this is probably identical with the remains of the gateway 
across Carter Lane. The house called the gatehouse in the parish 
of St. Olave is granted, 50 Edward III., upon payment of one penny 
at the feast of the nativity of the holy Baptist. It goes, 6th Henry 
IV., for 9 marks per annum. Alexander Fairford, who repre- 
sented Southwark in parliament, appears to have been tampering 
with the deeds — he was charged with forging them, — be this as it 
may, 12th Edward IV. he released the property containing the 
Gatehouse to the Bishop of Lincoln. 

' Archaologia, vol. xxxviii. p. 46, 



250 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

A similar gatehouse, with a similar gate, not of Southwark, is 
pictured and explained in the Gent. Mag., 1836. This, as I have 
no further record of the Southwark Gatehouse, will be interesting. 
The one I refer to is noted by Stow, 1S98, as near Westminster 
Abbey, and as a prison not only for debtors but for traitors, thieves, 
and other criminals. Here Colonel Lovelace wrote the song, — 

" stone walls do not. a prison make, 
Nor iron bars a cage. " 

Sir Walter Raleigh was here confined. 1S96, Edward Phillipps, 
preacher of St. Mary Overie's, was here for some ecclesiastical 
offence — keeping a fast on the wrong day, or something of the sort 
(Lansdown MS.). Later on it is noted how, at Ludgate, the 
Gatehouse, and at other prisons, baskets were let down to receive 
provisions and other relief for the prisoners, with " Pray remem- 
ber the Poor." 

In process of time our gatehouse or its belongings became the 
property of a religious gild or fraternity, the Brotherhood of Jesus 
of St. Olave's. The Richard Panell and others who took part in 
the transfer of the land, in 1520, to James Denton, parson of St. 
Olave's, for a cemetery, were no doubt masters and wardens, or 
otherwise connected with the brotherhood of Jesus. Upon the 
suppression of the gilds, this land, probably by the act of Richard 
Panell and the others, came into the hands of the parish of St. 
Olave's, and was converted, part into a cemetery, part into a ves- 
try hall and a school. Entries in the church books, 1552-1554, 
show the connexion : — 

It'm — p'd in Jesus Hows for fyer and drynk at a Vestrie, w.]d. 

It'm — p'd in Jesus Hows at a Vestry and for auditing accounts, \\i]d. 

Temp. Mary, the wardens and brotherhood of Jesus, no doubt en- 
couraged by the more promising appearance of affairs for such as 
they, made an appeal to the churchwardens that they might 
regain their property and position. The vestry said the rents 
must remain to the use of the parish, but the brethren might de- 
clare, between Christmastide and Hallowtide, how much they 
would give as a fine for rebuilding " the Church Hows," that is, 
for the Vestry Hall, which was, in fact, rebuilt about this time, and 



OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 25 1 

what yearly rent they would pay for its use at their feasts and 
quarter days. 

At length Walnut Tree Alley became Kater, i.e. Carter, Lane. 
Here for a time was Carter Lane Chapel, built 1789, with the 
largest Baptist congregation in London.' Two men, Rippon and 
Gill, were ministers here for nearly lOO years. After the demo- 
lition, for the new London Bridge approaches, the congregation 
met in new Park Street Chapel, after that at the Surrey Gardens, 
and lastly at the Tabernacle. It would more than astonish the old 
pastors could they be present now at a service at the Tabernacle. 

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS,— ST. OLAVE'S AND ST. 

SAVIOUR'S. 
Looking back from our present knowledge of social health 
conditions, of the most common-sense kind, I am much struck with 
the carelessness or ignorance of our early people, as to the most 
obvious precautions. Shrewd men, selected men, the wisest of 
their times, governors of a royal hospital,' appear to recognize 
even the casting of night slops, perhaps out of the windows, into 
the open courts of the hospital, as a custom which might be allowed 
under certain conditions. The general feeling of the people and 
of their teachers, with now and then an exceptional voice (like as 
that of Erasmus) crying in the wilderness, was that pestilence and 
death came from moral sin and erroneous opinion, needing chiefly 
religious humiliation, processions, and the like. They did not 
recognize plainly that the punishment of disobedience to physical 
law, and a disregard of the conditions of existence, brought 
punishment more heavy than did sin, which mostly touches indi- 
viduals, as the former communities. Here, now, is our grammar 
school, down Smith's Alley, south of it by Tooley Street. Against 

' See an interesting little book upon this subject by Mr. Spurgeon, ' The 
Metropolitan Tabernacle ; its History and Work.' 1876 (illustrated). 

^ Orders, 1647. Refuse of all sorts from the wards is cast out into the yards ; 

ordered, — " after the casting to be clean swept." " No man shall cast urine or 

ordure into the streets afore the hour of nine in the night. Also he shall not cast 
it out, but bring it down and lay it in the channel," &c.— Calthrop's 'Reports,' 
1670, pp. 164-5. 



252 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

its very wall was the Flemish burial-ground,' north of it, close also, 
the new parish burial-ground, north of that just over the way the 
old churchyard, now too full to serve any longer. The St, 
Saviour's Grammar School bordered the well-filled churchyard of 
that parish, and in my own day at St. George's the parish school 
was the boundary in one direction of ground which had 
received the dead of the parish some eight hundred years at least. 
It was the custom to distribute at funeral ceremonies rings with 
mottoes, " Think on Death," skulls, cross-bones, and the like ; 
this burial-place before his eyes was, perhaps, a. mefnenio mon'ior 
the school-boy at the beginning of life, the tombstones always 
looking in upon him at his lessons, and the atmosphere charged 
with depressing particles. The schools of St. Saviour's, St. 
George's, and Bermondsey were all within a few yards of these 
churchyards. 

^In 1560, Henry Leeke, of South wark, beer brewer, who lived 
at the foot of London Bridge, by Pepper Alley, gave by will 
certain money towards setting on foot and maintaining a free 
school in St. Olave's parish, or in St. Saviour's. He may be, 
therefore, considered the founder, or rather the first to propose the 
foundation of the school. He probably moved the parish in the 
same direction. So, 13th November the same year, the vestry 
resolved that the churchwardens and others should seek to know 
the goodwill and benevolence of the parish, what they would give 
toward setting up and maintaining a free school. Fair response 
resulted, gifts in perpetuity among the rest. Another liberal 
brewer, out of lands at Fastall Place, in St. Olave's, gave 4I. a 
year, and lOs. for an annual sermon. The vestry now, 22nd 
July, 1 56 1, orders that the churchwardens should receive Mr. 
Leeke's gift, and " prepare a schoolmaster to teach the poor men's 
children to read and write and cast accounts, to prepare and 
make ready the church hall with benches and seats and all things 
necessary against Michelmas next." The church hall appears to 
have been the old Jesus Gild Hall, and the vestry of the parish." It 

' See the old school and Flemish gravcj-ard.— Wilkinson's plate, ' Lond. 
Illust.' 

* Comer's ' Short Account, ' 1851 ; and Gentleman' s Magazitie, 1836. 
' Wilkinson's plate and account. 



St. olave's grammar school. 253 

would appear, allowing- for individual liberality, that the " ancient 
inhabitants of St. Olave's" were at the chief cost and trouble. 
In 1567 the vestry resolves to make it a "free" school to be 
established by authority; an act could not be obtained, so the 
Queen, by letters patent, iS7i, orders that from thenceforth there 
shall be a grammar school, to be called "The Free Grammar 
School' of Queen Elizabeth of the parishioners of the parish of 
St. Olave, in the county of Surrey." The patent recited that the 
inhabitants of the parish had, at no little cost, labour, and charge, 
ordained that children of inhabitants, as well rich as poor, should 
be instructed in grammar, accidence, and other low books — that 
sixteen of the most discreet and honest inhabitants should be 
governors, the first named being Anthony Bushe, clerk, parson 
of St. Olave's, William Bond, clerk, minister thereof, William 
Willson,' Charles Pratt, John Lamb, Olave Burr,' Thomas Poure, 
Thomas BuUman, William Lands, Richard Harrison, Thomas 
Harper, John Charman, Robert Cowche, Christopher Wood- 
ward, James Heath, and Thomas Pynden ; these were first chosen 
in vestry. Here was a body corporate, capable of holding lands 
and having a common seal,' which the Queen granted without 
fee. This was very liberal of Her Majesty, as she was usually far 

* The dissolution of the monasteries suddenly destroyed many schools, — tlie 
wheat often perished with the tares ; it was said that this would be provided 
for, and in some instances it was so, but it took time to build up what had been 
so quickly and ruthlessly pulled down ; the most of the spoil fell into private 
hands, and that condition was not favourable to schools or public benefits. True, 
just before much had been done for education : from 1502 to the Reformation, say 
in about thirty years, some twenty grammar schools had been founded for the youth 
who had been previously instructed at the monasteries (Warton's ' Life of Sir 
Thomas Pope,' 1772, p. 137), and, as we see, some were from time to time 
established after. 

' M.P. Southwark, Sth and 14th Elizabeth. 

« M.P. Southwark, 13th Elizabeth. 

' The common seal bears date 1576, and represents the master with the birch 
before him, the corpus vile in the shape of boys at hand, and the encouraging text, 
" Qui parcit Virgam odit filium,'' common on the seals of many of these grammar 
schools. It appears to have been a fundamental maxim of the time that the 
knowledge should be got in at one end or the other — and if we may credit the 
' Fasten Letters,' and the experience of Lady Jane Grey, who is punished " in 
waies she will not name, " they treated the gentler sex much in the same way. 



254 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

more ready with blessing than with money. For several years 
after, the school was maintained out of the general funds of the 
parish, but it was considered advisable to vest property sufficient 
for its support in the governors. In 1579 *e vestry agreed that 
"Thomas Batte, Willson, Burr, Harper, Rye Denman, and Rye 
Pynfold should take order with Mr. Goodyer and Mr. Egglefelde, to 
pass over Horsey -downe to the use of the schole." At the time 
this was ordered the horsedowne was used by the parishioners for 
pasture, for digging sand and gravel, and here were the parish 
butts for archery. Subject to these privileges it was let to one 
Alderton at 61. per annum. Mr. Corner says, Nov. 1836, it 
produces 2,000/. per annum, and the whole income reported in 
1868, Lord Montagu's return, is 4,813/. 4^. 2d. The Ti??ies, 1877, 
says s,ooo/. 

In 26th Charles II. letters patent were granted, confirming the 
former and making some additions ; such as University exhibitions 
for deserving scholars, power to hold lands to 500/. a year, &c. The 
governors had in the early time some 'trouble in law about Horsey- 
downe.^ Some items of the charges are curious : " To searche in 
the Courte of Augmentacion for the surveay of the Abbey of 
Bermondsey, 1 1'. Spent the 19 day of Nov' at breckfaste upon 
o' lawyer, 1 1'. S*, and business with Mr. Goodyer. Expended in 
takinge possession of the Downe the 27"' daye of Januarye 1586, 
upon lOves of bread for boys, 12* ; and for a dynner the same day 
in Fyshe Streate for certain of the P'ishe." Certain lands of this 
once troublesome estate in Horslydown were, by indenture, 1656, 
made to trustees, which so continued until 1783, and since that to the 
parish. This is known as the Red Rose Estate in Fair Street and 
Parish Street, and is held at the yearly rent of a red rose.^ These 
parishes, St. Olave and St. John, are rich in charities ; a list of 
them has been published in the form of a small book, the best I 
have seen of its kind : it shows the rental, and gives plans and a 

' 1615, Trespass ofWilliam Knight, brewer. 1632, as to title with Anthony 
Thomas ; a Thomas Gainsford, cousin of the Abdys, afterwards appears. 

^ Paid thus, previous to the annual sermon, 17th November in each year,— to the 
warden a bunch of roses, to each governor a bouquet of dried flowers with a. rose 
in each. 



st'olave's grammar school. 25s 

particular account of the lands and tenements of the Free Grammar 
School. 

Some early notices, chiefly from the churchwardens' accounts, as 
to the schoolmasters, are very interesting-. In 156 1, It. p* to Mr. 
Tyllar, Scolle Master the is'" daye of february for a quarters 
wagys dewe to hym at Candylmas last paste, vli. : in iS7i, Itm to 
the "Scholemaster for ij yers wag-ys xxvjVz'. xiijj. ; Itm for fyndinge 
his hussher one quar xxxi. ; in 1577, Itm to John Nashe Scholem' 
for his wag-es xiij/z'. vjj. s\\]d. A scene at the vestry, 4th January,' 
1571, with Christofer Ocland, is worth notice. "At this vestry 
came Christofer Ocland with one lettre from the reverent father 
in God the Lord Bysshop of Wincester, and an other Lettre from 
the worshipful Mr. Fletwood Recorder of London, commending in 
these Lettres unto us the said Cristofer Ocland to be our Scholem', 
whereunto the hole Vestry gave their consente, and agreed with 
the sayd Ocland for wages, namely that he should have twentye 
marks by the yere, and to teache so many gramaryens as we 
think shall be found meet for the same, viz. x or xij at the fyrste, 
and also he to helpe the husshers to teache the petytes, seying we 
muste keep such an hussher as. ys abell to teach wrytinge, who 
cannot do bothe hymselfe without the Master do helpe to teache 
the petytes. Further yt was agred that yf Rye' Marlow which 
ys now Scholemaster will not tary here as hussher and teache 
wrytinge and helpe to teache the petytes, then the sayd Ocland to 
have the hole wages, and to fynd his hussher him selfe and to 
teache gramer, wrytinge, and petytes, accord to the erection of 
our sayd Schole ; also yt was agred, for that twentie marks was 
not sufficiente lyving for the sayd Ocland, that therefore he should 
have leve to take vj or viij Schoilers for his owne preferment ; 
also he was wylled by us to repayre to Mr. Doctor Rushe, our 
parson for the obteyning his good wyll herein. And so he did, 
and came to us agayn the xj day of Januarye, and brought the 
parson's Lettres, he givinge also his consent to oure doyngs ; but 
the said Christofer Ocland, for that he coulde not enter presentlye, 
by and bye he sayd that was not for hys purpose, or wolde not 
serve his turne, whereunto he was answered by them beyng 
presente, that yf he would not tarye untyl our Lady Daye he 
should enter at the halfe quarter which was not full xiij dayes to 



2^6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

come. He refused our offer and went his way, beinge angrie, and 
set the matter lighte. Ther being present Wm. Bond, Tho. 
Batts, Mr. Willson, Olyfe Burr, Thos. Bullman, Thomas Harp, 
John Chapman, Thomas Pynden, and other more.'" This is all the 
notice of Christofer Ocland.* According to another minute John 
Payne was elected schoolmaster of St. Olave's School, 27th 
January, 1571. He was told that if he lacked abylyty in lernlnge 
or honestie in his lyfe or conversation, he should not loke to 
'contynew, by which I judge that these gentlemen were perhaps 
short or rude to Ocland, so that he " became angrie and went his 
way." 

From 1589 to 1592, Robert Browne, domestic chaplain to the 
Duke of Norfolk, a reformer, religious leader, and founder of the 
Brownists,' was master at St. Olave's School. Fuller, whose 
statements are, however, often intemperate and partial, says, in 
his epigrammatic way, that Browne had a wife with whom he 
never lived, and a church wherein he never preached. Some said 
he beat his wife ; he, answering the charge, says, " I do not beat 
her as Mrs. Browne, but a curst cross old woman." This was, of 
course, after he left St. Olave's. He closed his life in a prison, 
not for his opinions, but for his brutality to a constable ; and his 
boast was, that during his warfare with the religious authorities 
of the Church of England, and of Rome, he had been in at least 
thirty-two prisons. At the school he could not have been a very 
pleasant man to deal with, and one may even vent a little pity 
upon the scholars from 1589 to 1592. The school continued in 
Churchyard Alley, where it began, until the railways and the 
new London Bridge drove it from place to place,' and paid well 

' Ellis's 'Letters of Eminent Literaiy Men. ' — Camden Society. The spelling 
varies in a point or two from the original, but only in quite unimportant particu- 
lars, so I have not altered the Ellis Letters. 

' Ocland, a remarkable writer ; some of his books " to be read in all schools, 
in place of the heathen poets," 1582. 

* Brownists, fanatical opponents of the then legal ministry ; they were classed 
among Puritans. — Hallam. 

« For pictures of the successive schools, see Wilkinson ; Gentkinan's Magazine, 
1836, article by Mr. Corner ; and the Builder, March 1st, 1856, &c. The first 
Report of Commissioners on the Education of the Poor and the Appendix, 1819, 
may be consulted. 



ELIZABETHAN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 257 

each time for so doing. It is said, and really appears to be one 
of the best conducted schools in the kingdom ; and instead of the 
few boys and petytcs first admitted, has now nearly 600, soon to 
be increased to at least 700, children. We may hope that the 
education of girls will be allowed fair play in this magnificent 
institution. 

It will be convenient here to leave our chosen plot of ground in 
St. Olave's, and step across the High Street to the then grammar 
school of the next parish, St. Saviour's, which is also one of Queen 
Elizabeth's chartered schools, and is also opposite a graveyard. It 
is not so fortunate nor so rich as that of St. Olave's, and it is in 
some respects a somewhat subordinate affair — now, in 1878, very 
much so, I am afraid. I cannot help thinking that the corrupt 
management of the parish affairs, as at last developed during 
a sort of parish revolution in 1730, had something to do with 
this. At this time, "books were lost," "it was difficult to fix 
anything," "conduct inscrutable," "entertainments were frequent 
and splendid." Such are the phrases I saw in the vestry minutes 
of the time; and the supposed wrong-doers, after a hard fight, 
gave way before the Ecclesiastical Court, and proceedings were 
only in this way stayed. In June, 1562, Queen Elizabeth signed 
the charter for "the free grammar school of the parishioners 
of the parish of St. Saviour in Southwark," — ^the name she 
sanctioned. The first names in the charter must here be given ; — 
honour to whom honour is due, — they are William Emerson, John 
Sayer, Richard Ryall, Thomas Cure, John Oliff, Thomas Pulter, 
Thomas Biff, William Browker, Christopher Campbell, and 
William Gifferon ; of these, Thomas Cure, the Queen's sadler, 
appears as the chief mover. These had " lately " designed and 
erected a grammar school in which the children of the poor and 
rich might learn grammar. The vestry books throw light upon 
this. 13th August, I5S9, it is ordered that a new school -house be 
built upon the spot where the old church-house stood, in the parish 
of St. Margaret, and that the old chapel behind the chancel shall 
be let for the benefit of the school. This was not done, but the 
school had apparendy begun, and a house was taken or rented. 
In 1562— a few days before the grant of the charter— it is ordered 
that "42/. be paid to Matthew Smith, for the purchase of the 



258 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

school-house." Matthew Smith seems to have thought that he 
did not get enough out of this transaction ; he " repents his 
bargain, and will give 61. i2,s. ^d. to be relieved of it"; to use a 
modern and very expressive phrase, he is trying it on. The 
vestry did not respond as he expected, but agrees to take his 
forfeit money. In November it is noted that Matthew Smith 
does not pay the 61. 13J. ^d., and so the bargain stands. 

Now, in 1562, rules and regulations are made, which in words 
at least appear to be wise, and they have the sanction of the 
Bishops of Winchester, Robert Home and Thomas Bilson. These 
quaint rules are very instructive and interesting as to the past ; 
that is, of the times of 1562 and of 1614. I shall, therefore, quote 
them freely. The scholars are to be of the parish, but others are 
to be admitted, in all, to the number of 100 ; they are to be of 
that age and towardness as to read English well, to write a legible 
hand, and to be fit to be entered in accidence or grammar, or in 
Latin, at the least ; the boy's friends must engage to provide for 
him all things fit for his learning — a little Bible or Psalm-book, 
other books, paper, pens, ink, satchel, candles in winter, whole- 
some and handsome clothing beseeming his estate, and to take 
care of his body ; they are to let the master know if he cannot 
come, that the school and masters may not be blamed for the 
parents' fault ; and lest it should cause the undoing of the child, 
the parents are reminded that the care of him at dinner-time/ 
supper-time, &c., rests with them; that he must not frequent 
naughty company, which may infect his conversation and hurt his 
body or health; if they neglect this, he will lose the master's 
virtuous directions, and will learn to take no care, nor make 
conscience of any nurture. They are to manage with great discretion 
and severity at home, which will make him love his school. The next 
may be written in letters of gold, " For the master may do much, 
but good and discreet government at home makes all sure, and 
doth the greatest good." The child shall not bring money nor 
buy and sell at school. Two-and-sixpence is to be paid to the 
master on entrance, and twopence every quarter tmvards broovis and 
rods; to the usher fourpence a quarter ; and the week after Michael- 
mas one pound of good candles, for the winter studies. All this agreed 
to and done, John Thompson, the selected name, signs this state- 



ST. saviour's grammar school. 2S9 

ment : '• I, J. T., son (first, second, or third, as the case may be) of 
Richard Thompson, Chandler, of the age of seivii years and three 
months, reading and learning in the Accidence' and entering into 
Propria qua Maribus, &.C., and also Tully his second epistle, among- 
those gathered by Sternius, and Corderius' Dialogues," &c., was 
admitted, &ic? In i6n. From the ist March to ist September, 
the child is to come at 6 in the morning, and be at school until 1 1 . 
Again at i, and tarry till 6; the rest of the year he is to begin in 
the morning at 7, and leave at 5 in the afternoon. The Maister 
shall not give leave to play but once a week. He shall be a 
Master of Arts, sound in the Christian religion according to the law 
of the land, and sound in body and mind, in conversation gentle, 
sober, honest, virtuous, and discreet, skilled in the Latin, and 
able to teach grammar, oratory, poetry, and Greek, as also the 
principles of Hebrew ; he shall have a good facility and dexterity 
in teaching and profiting children, (here comes a saving clause) 
"if such may be gotten," — he is to be of a wise, sociable, and 
loving disposition, not hasty or furious, nor of ill example ; he 
shall be wise and of good experience, to discern the nature of 
every several child, (here again) " if such may be got." The 
Maister being now appointed, he is to have 20I. a year, payable 
quarterly,'' and the usher or sub-master 10/., which sums repre- 

* ' The want of a simpler and more i^ractical education for tlie scliolars likely to 
be admitted here came out in due time, and was in some measure supplied by 
Mrs. Dorothy Appleby, in 1681, for the teaching children reading, writing, and 
cyphering, and by Mrs. Newcomen, whose bequest of 1674 came into possession 
about 1749, for instruction in the Chriatian religion, in reading, writing, 
arithmetic, and such other instruction as might be deemed needful by the Wardens. 
Lord Montagu's return, 1868, gives the amount spent in education for St. 
Saviour's as 1,621/. t)s. %d., and the School Board return, 1876, at exactly the 
same amount, which is not likely to be accurate, or anything like it. It is some- 
thing rather wonderful that out of this amount devoted to education in St. 
Saviour's parish, Jlrs. Newcomen's original gift of 142/. is. 6d., for various 
purposes, should now realize much more than 1,000/. ; indeed, I think 2,000/. a 
year for education alone. It was a long time coming, but when it did come it 
was a nest-egg, 

* If this is a fair sample, we have certainly degenerated ; our children cannot 
now usually do Cerderius his dialogues in Latin at seven years and three months. 

' 1565. Mr. Harman, the Minister, is to have 20/. a year for his wages, and 
not the christenings, and may leave with a fortnight's warning. — Vestry Minutes. 

S 3 



26o OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

sent now a much larger amount.^ It is added, forasmuch as the 
school is but lately erected and founded, and the revenues insuffi- 
cient, until " God shall in time to come further bless our doings 
in this behalf," the high master may take into the school forty 
foreign scholars (that is, not of the parish) for his own advantage. 
In 1614 other men are governors, among them Bingham, Tre- 
hearne, Philip Henslowe of the Bankside theatres, and other 
noted parishioners ; they revise or add to the rules, as, for instance, 
that the master is not to let out the schoolhouse; he is not to 
frequent ill houses, nor practise physic, nor do anything else to 
hinder his diligence. The boys are to have a week's holiday from 
the day before the Lady Fair in Southwark ; a doubtful 
advantage, if the holiday is, as it appears, during the fair time. 
The plaies of the boys are to be shooting with long bows, chesse, 
running, wrastling, leaping — players for money or betters are to be 
punished and expulsed. The scholars of the highest forms are to 
be taken once a year to Merchant Taylors and Westminster 
Schools upon election days, to see the manner and fashion of the 
orations and exercises. March 2nd in each year the accounts 
shall be read at the vestry, and, if God increase the stock, a house 
in the country shall be provided for the scholars in time of 
infection, and if God further blesses the store, then shall be some 
scholarships and fellowships at the universities — a scholarship shall 
not be less than two shillings a week, nor a fellowship less than three 
shillings. I read also that gowns were to be given to the scholars of 
St. Saviour's Grammar School, from a gift of Robert Nowell of Gray's 
Inn, in 1569.^ Another item from an independent source' — "At 
this courte William Browker citizen and merchantaylor of London 
and one of the govners of the free school of St. Mary Overyes and 

hamerton one of the churchewardeyns there Dyd pay unto 

M' Osborne for the interest of a lease of certyn tent' in Cheker 
Alley the some of iiij/z." This had to do with the school. 

' Seventy years before beef and pork were a halfpenny the pound ; now, 1600, 
a harvest man's wages are sixpence per day ; beef is eighteenpence the stone, 
butter threepence the pound, a lamb five shillings, and so on. 

' Hist. MS. Commission, App. 4th Report, p. 407, but I am not aware that 
t took effect. 

' MS, Thomas's Hospital, 1572. 



ST. saviour's grammar school. 261 

In May, 1676, there was, as related elsewhere, a g-reat fire in 
Southwark, which beg-an at an oil-shop between the George and 
Talbot, and steadily crept up towards St. Thomas's Hospital on one 
side, and towards St. Saviour's church on the other, destroying all 
in its way. The grammar school was, among the rest, burnt, or 
blown up with gunpowder to stay the fire, i.e. a cure upon principles 
we now call homoeopathic — fire to put out fire. The school was 
soon rebuilt, south of the churchyard, in comely and substantial 
style. Pictures of the school are common enough, the whole 
frontage facing the tombstones of the parish churchyard. Over 
the back door in Foul Lane was an old stone preserved from the 
fire, with this inscription, " Libera Schola Grammaticalis Paroch- 
ianorum Parochise Sancti Salvatoris in Southwarke in Com- 
Surriae, Anno Quarto Reginee Elizabethse." At length the old 
school, situated on the south side of the parish church, fell into 
decay, and it became necessary, for market^ as well as school 
purposes, to build elsewhere ; the materials were therefore sold 
by auction, and a private Act was obtained, 1st & 2nd Victoria, 
1837-8. 

The first stone of the new schools in Sumner Street was laid 
the 9th May, 1839, in the presence of the governors, masters, and 
scholars, the expense of the structure being defrayed from the 
funds of the school.^ A note in the Times^ from the master 
disclaims an exhibition for Oxford, which one of the scholars was 
said to have obtained. Such a benefit was, however, contemplated. 
In the words of the rules of 16 14, " if God further blesses the 
store there shall be some scholarships and fellowships at the 
Universities." Let us hope that such exhibitions are yet possible. 
The names ot people of position and riches, and of more or less 
mark in the land, are to be seen over the great warehouses so 
thickly occupying the neighbourhood of this school. 

•• The Southwark or Borough Market has steadily grown, and has absorbed the 
lands and premises near at hand, the site of the Freeschool among the rest. 

5 I obtain these particulars chiefly from the books and records of the school, 
for which I am greatly indebted to the kindness of a friend, whose authority is 
of the highest. 

« 14th Dec, 1877. 



262 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

THE FLEMISH BURIAL-GROUND. 
Returning from the short journey to the grammar school, across 
the way in the neighbouring parish (St. Saviour's), and once 
more near the little plot of ground beneath the rail, let me notice 
before I quit the subject the Flemish Burial Ground, which 
occupies one part of that small acreage about Smit's Alley, im- 
mediately adjoining the old Grammar School, and south of it. 
Looking down through this tall brickwork of the railways to the 
little graveyard beneath, what a lesson comes out of it, and what 
a wonderfully suggestive story might be woven out of the facts ! 
Here is a little patch of ground in a strange land set apart to hold 
the remains of skilful workers, driven from their own homes 
because they could not shape their belief and opinion in accord 
with the bidding of others, as if that were possible, even if it were 
desirable.' These poor refugees, Flemish or other, had a bad 
time of it, at home or abroad, but the ultimate benefit was to the 
country to which they came, and the loss, to that they left. In 
1566 the King of Spain complained that the people of the Low 
Countries were harboured in England, — our little parish of St. 
Olave's was in the highway of trade, by the river side, and here 
and about Southwark and elsewhere numbers of them settled. 
So many, that a special burial-ground became necessary, and this 
burial-ground was named after the refugees, the Flemish Burial- 
ground.' The Flemings arrived very early in England ; the 

' The cruelty is less than the absurdity ; a man cannot will his opinion one 
way or another, or have it willed for him. The plea that it is to warn sinners 
and to save souls will not hold. These persecutors cannot affinn that heaven is 
to be peopled with hypocrites, and yet they must own that the weak and the fearful 
conform, or rather, only appear to conform ; and the folk who resist and suffer 
are almost the only honest ones in the transaction. Fear may, of course, operate 
to prevent evil action, but cannot alter honest belief. Instead of remaining at 
home to be burnt, butchered, or "converted," flocks of persecuted people 
came to England. Those who fled from the Spaniards in the Netherlands, and 
from France at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and at the lime of the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes, have helped, in no small degroo, to make us a great nation. 
The Pope, pursuing even into the sanctuary here, charged the Queen (Elizabeth) 
against the poor strangers, that "they were the worst of people." 

* Other alien burial-grounds besides this in Southwark are noted ; for instance, 
at St. Catherine's, a token shows, one side n goal, reverse, "Mcmish Church 



FLEMISH REFUGEES. 263 

Conqueror brought weavers with him, and planted them about 
in Norwich and elsewhere. Now they came not from motives 
of trade, but on account of religious persecution. The wool 
trade was of immense importance, and down to our times South- 
warlc stands as a staple or market for wool, the growth of very 
early time. It cannot be doubted that the Flemings came over 
here sometimes in great numbers from motives of trade only.^ So 
many were they in Southwark in 1371, that a great feature of Wat 
Tyler's outbreak was the test of the words bread and cheese, which 
who could not pronounce in the English manner was deemed a 
Fleming, and was summarily disposed of ; and the froes of Flanders, 
who pursued their equivocal calling at the stews, were alike dealt 
with. 

In 1470 the Kentishmen pursue, rob, and drive them out from 
Southwark and other suburbs.^ There was great agitation as 
to the presence of strangers, notably in Southwark at most 
times — " they forestall the market and so Englishmen want and 
starve,"^ was the cry. In 15 17 came the evil May Day, when 
there was a general massacre of strangers, and some seventeen 
offenders were hanged on gibbets in the streets of London, the 
Lady of the "Maner" in Southwark,' and other ladies, praying 
pardon on their knees for the rest of the offenders. Authority 

Yard " ; another, of the Labour in Vain, woman scrubbing a negro, reverse, 
"Flemish Church Yard." — Beaufoy Collection. 

' In London, 1362, 36 Edw. III., regulations are made for the trade of aHen 
weavers, which John le Grutteret and Peter Vanthebrok, Flemings, and John 
Elias, a Brabanter, are to oversee. A model trade dispute occurs, and the way 
to settle it is shown. Workmen seiTing an alien master would, on any dispute, go 
to all the other workmen and poison their minds, so that no one should serve 
that master until the dispute was settled. Ordered henceforth that the wardens 
of the trade shall settle such matters, and arrest the workman if necessary. — 
Riley, ' Jlemorials London,' p. 307. 1370. The weavers are plenty enough to 
form a commonalty, to have their ordinances, and to petition the Mayor and 
Aldermen. Tliey state that they held their meetings in the churchyard of St. 
Laurence Pountney, and hired their servants there, and that other foreign weavers 
meet in another churchyard for the same purpose. 

' Stow's ' Annals. ' 

2 Hall's 'Chronicles.' 

' Her palace, "the maner place,'' was here, but later than this date. The King 
dined here with the Duke of Suffolk in 1519, at the manor place of the map. 



264 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

itself now and then pursues the unhappy foreigners. iSi9* A 
sudden and secret raid is made in Southwark at midnight ; some 
were taken in the liberty of the Archbishop of Canterbury, some 
in Blewe Made Alley, in Kentish Street, in the parish of St. Woloff 
(Olave), most of them French and German. To give a notion of 
what it was that drove out these people. — It can scarcely be 
believed that any other than barbarians pure and simple could, 
under any plea, least of all under the plea of Him who came to 
bring goodwill among men, so vitiate and disgrace our common 
natures. In 1549, at the inauguration of Henry II., the burning 
of religious people in the streets of Paris was made part of the 
solemnity. When the Duke of Alva came into the Netherlands 
100,000 people fled with their money and goods. 

I need not, in this little episode of the burial-ground in Tooley 
Street, tell the atrocious tale why these people fled, and what 
they had to fear ; I recommend the life of Alva for daily reading, 
to those who do not as yet understand religious toleration. The 
question may be put whether the age noted by Darwin is so far 
back after all, when our progenitors were beasts, or more correctly 
whether a few survivors of that age may not now and then be 
traced among men.' 

' 'Rolls Cal. (Dom.).' 

* Touching these passages, my kindly Cambridge Critic writes me thus : — "I 
solemnly charge you, if you are indeed an enemy of persecution, to gibbet a Pro- 
testant persecutor next time as a more guilty person than a Roman Catholic 
persecutor, because the Protestants knew what persecution was like, and did not 
persecute for opinions which had for ages been regarded as essential to salvation." 
Alas ! it is too easy to do as my friend bids me. The spirit or habit of persecu- 
tion is not confined to one form of Christian creed ; all seem to have misread the 
gracious message— some more, some less. But I gibbet no one ; the crael crime 
it is which is so hateful. The people who actually did these deeds were often but 
the tools — either of a church, of a government, of a clique, or from a perverted 
private sense of duty, the power of fascination drawing to cruelty for pui-poses of 
apparent good. Dr. Willis, in his now published life of Calvin, seems to show 
upon sufficient testimony that this foremost Protestant leader could import, even 
into a charge of mere heresy, his own private hate and desire of vengeance- 
could use humbler persons as agents to bring his victim into the toils— could 
continuously contrive this wickedness— could insist on the cruelty to the bitter 
end of burning alive a philosopher who did not hold the opinions he held, when 
others, judges too, were inclined to pity. Thus did Calvin to Scrvclus, a man 



REFUGEES FLYING FROM PERSECUTION. 265 

The trading people known as Walloons fled mostly hither, so 
that England became at this period the " Asylum Christi " — the 
Sanctuary of Christ. On the sacking of Antwerp, in 1585, one- 
third of the workmen in silks, damasks, taffeties, baizes, sayes, 
serges, stockings, and the like, settled in England, until then 
ignorant almost of such manufactures. About this time of Henry 
VIII. the French came, and taught us " how to make hats and 
take them off." Some of these trades entered Southwark and 
flourished, and hats and wool and better brewing have come down 
to this day among us. I say brewing, as some great alien brewers 
settled here about the time. I do not forget the celebrity of 
Southwark ales in Chaucer's time.' Very many of the people of 
the Low Countries settled here in 1566. In 1569 one of the best 
and kindliest of women, who knew Southwark, and visited its 
prisons, Katherine Brandon, pleads for a poor Dutchman, type of 
so many, who wished to fetch hither his wife and goods, and she 
writes earnestly to Cecil as to the misery of those abroad, suffering 
for conscience' sake. About these times frequent returns are made 
of strangers resident, their numbers, trades, and churches ; I have 
notes of 1571, 1581, 1586, and 1618. In 1571' the return is of the 
names and callings of strangers in the Bridge Ward without, i.e., 
Southwark, — 946 are noted ; 845 of them Dutch and 84 French ; 
the account they give of themselves is — some came to work, some 
to see the country, but mostly they came for freedom of religious 
worship. And so of the others. Men of note, men of good word 
and deed, living among us about these times, show by their names 
whence they came. The brewer, Henry Leeke, first mover for a 
St. Olave's Grammar School, whose funeral sermon was preached 
at St. Olave's by Miles Coverdale ; Webling,' formerly Leeke's 

whose name stands out brightly in the retrospect as a landmark of knowledge far 
in advance of his age. If this be true, Calvin stands, so far as motive goes, on a 
far blacker eminence than does Alva, 

^ Notwithstanding, it does appear that the refugee brewers brought over a 
much improved knowledge of their business. 

' ' Rolls Papers (Dom.),' 1547-80, vol. 82. 

" One ot the large contributors to the city loan of 4,900/, by "strangers 
refugees." 



266 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

clerk, and afterwards a great brewer; the Goodyeres, whose 
names appear in connexion with the church of St. Olave's, and 
whose important house is in Bermondsey,— another house evidently 
belonging to some countryman of his in Long Lane is also a house 
of some mark (Map, 62). 

In 1563 there are "cruel dissentions in Flanders; many are 
fleeing hither, so that empty houses get filled to the glory of the 
English nation and the advantage of Landlords and Lease- 
mongers." Names of French and Flemish people appear in the 
weekly records of St. Thomas's Hospital as tenants — John Preter, 
in frenche Alle,'' a frencheman ; a lease is granted to Jan Vander- 
poost, Sylkeweaver, and Henryck Beakemans; and there are 
others. In 1595 the poor tradesmen made a riot upon these 
strangers in Southwark, taking the bread out of their mouths, as 
they thought; but wise statesmen saw how it advantaged the 
country, and stood between them and the anger of this ignorant 
people. One owns that " their chiefest cause of entertainment 
here was first in charity, to shroud them from persecution in 
religion, and beinge here, theire necessity became the mother of 
their ingenuitie in deviseing many trades, before to us unknowne." 
At this time, 1618, they are in Horsehead allye; there is in the 
Close a dier with many servants ;'■ others are found in May Pole 
Alley, in the Mint, Blackman Street, Long Lane, Skinner's 
Alley, Church Yard Alley, Walnut Tree Court, Smythe's Alley, 
Tenter Alley and the Mays ; some dwell in Rochester House, in 
Maide Lane, in Rose Alley, and in other places here in South- 
wark. Among this list of 1616 are brewers, merchants, dyers, 
workers in silk, in gems, and jewellery. Out of a list of 1343 
alien persons in London, 148 are Tailors. Evelyn, no mean 
judge, says of some of them, " they make beautiful glass at Green- 
wich, equal to Venice." 

' So we see there was an alle in Southwark for good Frenchmen flying in scarcli 
of kindness and Cliristianity. 

' Quite a nest of dyers here, along Clink Street and by Deadm.m's Place, 
some even to my own time. N.E. — Authorities chiefly consulted are Burn's 
' Histoiy of French, Walloon, Dutch and other Foreign Protestant Refugees,' 
1846 ; 'List of Foreign Protestants and Aliens Resident in England,' 161S-16SS, 
W. D. Cooper, Camden Society; Corner; Rolls MSS., &c.' 



THE RIVER SIDE, ST. OLAVE'S. 267 

GOODCHEPE'S KEY 
Stood by the house of the Abbot of St. Augustine, and the 
Bridge House. In our map is a plot of ground east of St. Olave's 
Church. Stow, in a few words, tells us all about it. He says, 
east from the church of St. Olave is a key. In the year 1330, by 
the license of Simon Swanland, Mayor of London, it was built by 
Isabel, widow of Hammond Goodchepe. 

Next to this was the great house of stone and timber, belonging 
to the Abbot of St. Augustine, of Canterbury. It was an ancient 
piece of work, and seemed to be one of the first houses built on 
that side of the river over against the City ; it was called the 
Abbot's Inn of St. Augustine in Southwarke, and was sometime 
holden of the Earls of Warren and Surrey. This appears by 
these words of the deed of 128 1 : "To all whom this present 
writing shall come, John Earl of Warren sendeth greeting. Know 
ye, that we have altogether remised and quit claimed for us and 
our heres for ever to Nicholas, abbot of St. Augustine's of Canter- 
burie, and the convent of the same, and their successors, such to 
our court of Southwarke ; which they owe unto us, for all that 
messuage, and houses thereon built between the Bridge House 
and the Church of St. Olave. The same we have granted in 
perpetual alms, saving service due, the said Abbot and Convent 
giving to us five shillings of rent yearly in Southwarke " ; and so on. 

This house of late belonged to Sir Anthony Sentlegar, then to 
Warham Sentlegar, &c., and is now called Sentlegar house, but 
divided into sundry tenements.^ In 1566, 8 Elizabeth, Richard 
Grenville, Esq., sold it to George B'letcher, by the description of a 
Capital Messuage or Mansion house, called St. Austin's, alias St. 
Leger's House, between the Bridge House, a Wood Wharf, the 
tenement called the Draper's rent, the river Thames on the north, 
and a lane leading to the same and the Bridge House. There is 
now (18 14) a wharf on the site, which retains the name of St. 
Leger, corrupted into Sellinger.' 

Adjoining the last named space, east of the church, is a place 

= Stow. 

^ Manning and liray, vol. iii. p. 59S. 



268 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

noted on the map (26) as the Brust house, probably the Bridge 
House, one time or another a brewery, a granary, or a store 
house. Stow is again our best authority. The Bridge House was 
so called as being a place for stone, timber, or whatever pertained 
to the building or repairing of London Bridge, and appears to 
have been coeval with the bridge as a handy storehouse. Here 
were also a large plot of ground on the bank of the Thames, and 
divers large buildings for stowage of materials necessary for the 
works of London Bridge. An inventory of the goods stored here 
for these purposes in 1350, 24 Edw. IIL, is given in Riley's 
' Memorials.' 

Here also were garners for laying up wheat to be harboured in 
time of plenty against a time of need ; and there were ovens, in 
all ten, six large and four "half so big." These were purposely 
made to bake the bread corn to the best advantage of poor citizens. 
Sir John Throstone, sheriff, 15 16, gave 200/. toward making the 
ovens. Sir John Munday being mayor, an old brewhouse called 
Golding's was taken in for the enlarging the old Bridge house. 
It was given to the city by George Monex, Lord Mayor in 15 14, 
and member for the city. Now, in place thereof, says Stow, a 
fair brewhouse is built for service of the city with beer. The 
bakers, in 1521, are not well pleased with the corn store at the 
Bridge House; they appeal to Cardinal Wolsey, and say that 
several of their body had been sent to Newgate and to the 
Counter, because they would not use the musty wheat stored at 
the Bridge House.'' They complain that two crafty Bridgemasters 
and a covetous Alderman buy and sell to their disadvantage. 
The City people had enacted that bakers should take out of the 
Bridge House the wheat provided, at prices fixed by the corpo- 
ration. Mr. Bridges, the Mayor, answers the charge, and says 
the wheat at the Bridge House garners is sweet, and the bakers 
must comply or they shall be fined 10/., and be punished at the 
discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen. Again in 1526, the bakers 
complain — they had always made and sold bread in accordance 
with the Act of Parliament and City customs ; since the time of 
Edward II. they had taken up wheat coming to London at prices 
settled by the Mayor; but lately it had been garnered at the 
* ' Jlaiining and Bray,' vol. iii., p. 261. 



THE BRIDGE HOUSE A STORE FOR CORN. 269 

Bridge House, and bakers were allowed to buy no other." The 
same complaints continue ; the bakers were not wholly wrong. 
In 1578-9," the wardens of the white bakers certify to Burleigh 
that 800 quarters of wheat were in the Bridge House, unwhole- 
some and not fit for use ; the wardens of the brown bakers report 
to the like eflfect, and they had so reported in 1575. The bakers 
of Southwark, as of the City, had, often enough, a hard time of it ; 
the pillory and the hurdle were the ready means for lynching a 
baker guilty of short weight or bad quality. The pillory — we 
know what that means ; the hurdle was to draw him in public 
sight through the principal streets, usually with his nefarious loaf, 
that there might be no mistake. It seems, therefore, rather hard 
upon them to insist that they should buy doubtful stuff out of the 
Bridge House, and yet compel them to sell good bread. They 
had told John Brigges, the Mayor, that last year they had taken 
out 2,000 quarters of musty, unwholesome wheat at 13^. ^d. the 
quarter. It was not fair to compel them to buy " musty " at 12^., 
when " sweet " could be had at ys. and 8s. The " commons " said 
this bad wheat caused infection and sickness. No doubt the " com- 
mons " were right as to this, and as to other unwholesome food. 
I may note that at this time it was a common custom to hawk 
bread through the City and suburbs, by men and horses. 
The storage of corn was, however, often a prudential matter. 
In 1 594 there was a remarkable dearth ; accordingly Sir 
John Spencer, the Lord Mayor, ordered that the City Companies 
should lay up wheat and rye in the public granaries at the 
Bridge House. Such stores in time of dearth excited the cupidity 
of the governing powers ; the treasurer of the navy demanded 
of the Mayor the Bridge House stores, and the use of the ovens 
there. The Mayor seems to have remonstrated and with complete 
success, stating that the ovens were wanted to bake bread at 
reduced rates for the poor of London, and that the treasurer must 
hold him excused.' In 1802 some old granaries in Tooley Street, 

^ ' Letters and Papers, Henry VII. ' Brewer, vol. iii. part 2 ; vol. iv. 
part 2. 

= 'Cal. State Papers (Dom.),' Aug., 1579. 

' Thomson's ' London Bridge, ' citing Stow's 'Annals. ' 



270 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

which belonged to the City, were taken down, " They were built 
in 1587 with chestnut, a wood then commonly used for the purpose, 
and at the charge of the Bridge House, for the storage of corn 
when cheap, as a provision against dearness and scarcity.'" 

Among the Harleian MSS., 6016, is an order by the Wardens 
of the Bridge, that as the Sheuteman hath often occasion to rise 
in the night to come to his boats, on the business of the Bridge 
House, to see the tides as they fall early or late, so that the porter 
must open the gate to him at undue times of the night, not only to 
his great pain and danger, but to the peril of the house, as lewd 
persons might enter, and perhaps rob and kill, — so the Wardens 
order a lodging to be made at the end of the crane-house, within 
the Bridge Yard, sufficient for two or three persons, and with a 
chimney, that the men, when they come at undue times of the 
night wet from their labours, may make a fire of the chips in 
the yard ; but there must be no dwelling nor hospitality.' 

Here were stairs for public landing from the boats. In the 
older maps wharfs were the exception ; but there were stairs at 
every few score yards or less for boats and passengers, and some 
open wharfs for the woodmongers. There were also about this 
very spot fish-ponds and pleasure-walks, and fowling and swans 
between London Bridge and the Mills of the Abbot of Battle 
(Mill Lane and Battle Bridge). 

At the Bridge House Stairs, in 1559, a very strange scene 
occurred — strange it would be to us, at all events. A very noted 
rover, in other words, a pirate or sea-robber, with some fourscore 
of his people, were landed here.^ This landing of sea-robbers 
was common enough at the Southwark riverside stairs, the 
Admiralty Court, for trying offences on the seas, being from very 
early times in the Borough. So these rovers were landed at 
the Bridge House Stairs, committed to the Marshalsea Prison, 
arraigned at the Admiralty Court at the Town-hall, and con- 
demned. Until 1789 offenders to be tried at the Admiralty Court 
were usually committed to this prison. The punishment inflicted 
upon such people was often after this manner ; the criminal was 

° Manning and Bray, vol. iii. p. 597. 

» Ibid. 

' Sec also ii. 120, 



PETTY BURGUNDY. 27 1 

bound to a pillar which, in one instance, of temp. Edw. I., stood by 
the Thames at a "wode-wharf" where people moored their 
vessels; the pillar was at low-water mark, and the criminal 
remained bound to it during- two floods and two ebbs of the water ; 
and this was one variety of punishment intended for these rovers. 

BERGHENE (PETTY BURGUNDY). 
The Berghene (Map, 30) is known later on as Petty Burgundy, 
and is the subject of one of Mr. Corner's pleasant and trustworthy 
contributions to Notes and Queries? It represents approximately, 
for it is impossible now to define the exact boundaries, some 
considerable space, east and west, between Tooley Street and 
Battle Bridg-e, otherwise Mill Lane ; and north and south the 
ground now occupied by all but the riverside parts of Cotton's, the 
Depot, and Hey's Wharfs, together with part of Tooley Street 
and much ground which the railway now covers. Tooley Street, 
with or without the Berghene, was known as Short Southwark. 
Branching off from this space, before the gigantic railways 
smothered all, were Joiner Street, Glen Alley, Dean Street,'* &c. 
At the south-east angle was the gate to the Maze,"* and the 
gardens of the Abbot, who lived opposite ; the gardens extended 
as far as (now) Snow Fields. The Berghend may have been a 
liberty itself, as in its centre (Map, 31) is, as I think, some appa- 
ratus of punishment, a pillory and cage ; I can make nothing else 
- of the rude sketch within the Berghend. Mr. Corner tells us that 
" Here, when the Greenwich Railway was built, were discovered 
some extensive brick vaults, of handsome construction and ancient 
date, the substructure of some important mansion. It may be 
that the Duke of Burgundy or his ambassador had his residence 
here in the reign of Edward IV., as, on or about this spot, was a 
place known by the name of the Burgundy, or Petty Burgundy." 
This site is covered by a part of the railway-station. The prefix, 
petty, was common enough; Petty France,^ so called from Frenchmen 

° Second Series, v. ii. p. 86. 

^ In this street Keats lived when he was a medical student at " Guy's." 

* "Within the Mayes gate in short Southwarke, nigh Battle Bridge," 1607. 

* A French Alley, in Southwark, in 1570, is mentioned as the property of St. 
Thomas's Hospital.— MS. 



272 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

living there, in Bishopsgate ; Petty Wales, in Thames Street, and 
the like. It might be that the name was derived, as Mr. Corner 
says, from alien inhabitants, so many of whom and of very various 
nationalities lived in St. Olave's parish. Or, again, the name 
might have come from Burgh-kenning" (Barbican), an old watch- 
tower, for which, in the early troublous times, this spot would seem 
to have been very suitable. I have no desire to strain a similarity 
in the sound of words ; but as St. Olaf here became St. Tooley, 
and as writers were very phonetic and free in spelling their words, 
I think this origin very probable. Within my own recollection a 
large signal, or semaphore, was here situated, the arms of which 
I have often seen worked as with news from sea. In the accounts 
of the churchwardens of St. Olave's, 1582, are recorded "the 
names of Godley disposed parishyoners, who of their owne free 
will were contrybutors to the erecting of the new churchyarde 
upon Horseydowne (now called the old Churchyarde)." Some of 
these good people lived in "the Borgyney." A grant also, 
36 Henry VIII., to Robert Curson, of divers tenements, late 
belonging to the priory of St. Mary Overey, refers to "Petty 
Burgen " in the parish of St. Olave in the Borough of Southwark. 
It notes two tenements, in tenure of Lambert Deane for a term of 
years at the rent of lxvj° viij* ; a tenement in the tenure of William 
Throw at will of the Lord, rent xxvj° viij''; a tenement in the tenure 
of Thomas Proland at will of the Lord, rent xxvj' viij^; tenements 
in tenure of Dominick Herman, Robert Bull and John Harvard 
in like manner. " The premises were very ruynous and sore in 
decay and were sold to Robert Curson for 100 marks." This 
transaction is of the actual time of our map, and refers, no doubt, 
to property alienated to the King at the dissolution. Robert 
Curson is an extensive buyer or recipient of forfeited property, 
and was intimately known to Cromwell, the chief agent in the 
destruction of the monasteries. 

THE INN AND GARDENS OF THE ABBOT OF 
BATTLE, THE MAZE, AND BATTLEBRIDGE. 
Imbued with a sort of pious gratitude, William the Norman 
after his last fight with the English at Battle, in Sussex, erected 

" A burgh-kenin, or watcli-tovver of the burgh or borough. — Stow, 



THE ABBOT OF BATTLES INN AND GARDENS. 2/3 

an abbey there ; the last stand of the defeated being made, it is 
supposed, where the high altar afterwards was. So distinguished a 
foundation must needs have its town house worthy of the abbot. 
On our map is the Brust House, or Bridge House, and further east 
the bridge (Map, 32) called of the Inn, Battle bridge ; between 
these two was this Abbot of Battle's Inn. 

The ecclesiastic has given place to the wharfinger, to gigantic 
places of business ; and Hay's Wharf, with proximate exactness, 
now occupies the site. The general notion handed down to us is 
that these dignitaries did not disdain to make themselves in a 
worldly sense comfortable ; the abbot had his walks and gardens, 
his maze, and fishponds. On the opposite side of the way, across 
short Southwark, over against the gateway of the Abbot's Inn, 
was the Mays, Maes, or Maze. Close at hand in 1598 was an 
inn, that is, an inn proper, known as the Flower de Luce, and 
many buildings of small tenements, which were now replenished 
with strangers and others, for the most part poor people.' But 
before this irruption of poor people, consequent on the surrender 
of the Abbot's gardens, they, that is the gardens, were for the 
pleasure of the Abbot ; accordingly the bridge. Battle bridge, was 
built and kept repaired by him, and so the way to the maze and 
gardens, as well as the way to Rotherhithe, were made easy and 
comfortable. One would like, in the mind's eye, to spend a day 
in the gardens and in threading the maze with the Abbot's people. 
The Abbot's rights and duties in Southwark were defined so early 
as 1243.* In the Valor. Eccles. Hen. VIII., " the Abbot of Battle 
has tenements, near Battlebridge worth per annum 28/. 6s. 8d., a 
watermill, worth by the year 3/. 6s. Sd., with its watercourse 
and the bridge." This bridge crossed a considerable stream, on 
which were swans ; the stream is referred to in the agreement of 
1243, between the Abbot and the City. It was evidently a 
charming place. Long before the dissolution the Maze was in 
private hands j probably the Abbot had now only a portion for 
his garden. The manor of the Maze was the seat of Sir William 

' Stow, Thorns, p. 155. 

' 'Collectanea Genealogica et Topog.,' vol, viii. B, M. (reading room) 2062. 
Article by Geo. Corner. 

T 



274 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Burcestre, who died there in 1407. Sir John Burcestre" died there 
in 1466. This Sir John, in his will, orders that his body shall be 
buried in the wall of St. Olave's, beside the holy king and saint : 
he shows himself as a type of modern payers of forgotten tax, and 
so leaves xiiij'. wd. to the high altar of the church of St. 
Olave's for offerings forgotten, or by negligence withholden, and 
in discharge of his soul. In 1467 the Maze belonged to the 
Clintons — in 1422 Elizabeth de Clinton had died seised of a 
messuage, &c., in the manor of the Maze in Southwark. From 
1472 to 1623 the Copleys had it. One of the Copleys marrying 
with John Weston, of Sutton Place, it came to the Westons. The 
names Maze and Maze Pond come from the old manor ; but, to 
make this more clear, John Street, Webb Street, Weston Street, 
Melior Street, and Sutton Street came from family narties, as 
Melior May Weston and John Webbe Weston. 

As to the Copleys, 1559-60, 31st Dec. "In Southwark at St. 
Towlys was buried my lady Copley,^ widow of Sir Roger, with 
XX great staff torches burning-, with priests and clerks singing, 
with a harold of arms and a pennon of arms and many morners, 
the church and the quire were hanged with black." There was a 
sermon and communion, and after, to her place to dinner, and 
a dole. Mr. Corner gives many interesting items of accounts 
between Donald Sharpies and Mr. Thomas Copley, Esquire (1575). 
Wm. Frith pays 40J. for his lease in Maze Lane. Half a bushell of 
oysters and porterage in Southwark come to xd. A red goatskin 
to make Maister Henry a jerken vs. A dozen buttons of gold and 
a mell (?) for the same jerken xd. Hops are sent at vd. the lb. Pay- 
ments are made for horse-meat and the like at the George, the 
Three Crowns, the Goat, and other inns named. The master of 
Paryshe Garden^ goes with Copley's servant into Bermondscy 

' Sir John is referred to in 1444 ; he and others %\-ere appointed to view the 
b.anks of the Thames, the Marshes, Paryshe Garden, South\\-ark, Bermondscy, 
Rotherhithe, &c., to repair and to make laws for preservation. See also 'Paston 
Letters,' Knight's ed. letter 163, where he is mentioned as being actively engaged 
in the quarrels of the houses of York and Lancaster. 

' An inquisition was t.aken 29th April, 1560, and shows that she died seised 
of the Manor of the Maze in Southwark. 

' In later maps a Dog and Bear Alley is here, and there are tokens of the same 



THE MAZE. 275 

Street to see some mastyve dogges. For casting- the common 
sewers, i.e. the open ditches of the maze, 3 is. Sd. is paid. William 
Goodyere is noted as a tenant ; the name indicates a refugee family 
from the Low Countries, and will appear again. His rent is 30^. a 
year. It appears that the masters of the Bridge House had been 
cutting down trees and damaging banks more than they might do, 
and so law expenses appear in the accounts. iS79- The casters 
of the sewers get ^6s. for 15^ rods work against the gardens in Maze 
Lane. The names of Henry Leke, Olave Burr, people of note in 
Southwark, appear as tenants to the Copleys. 1620. The Com- 
mission of Sewars order William Copley, Gentleman, landlord of 
the Maze, and his tenants to repair 2 poles and a halfe of the 
bancke of the sewar which lyeth anenst the yard of Richard 
Barnes, Brewar, and if they did not to forfeit xxs. Copious extracts 
from a court-roll of the manor in 1661 are given in Mr. Corner's 
paper. Among the accounts appears iij.f. i]d., the cost of a gram- 
mar book for Maister Henry Copley. 

The schools of the time were commonly grammar schools. 
That this was not, however, the only kind of learning taught then, 
a business announcement of a schoolmaster of the Maze, in 1607, 
will show. The book in which this appears is the grovnd of Arts, 
Teaching, &c., made by M Record, D in Physicke, by John Mellis, 
1607. The book is in black letter, and is in the form of question 
and answer between Maister and Scholler. The last page is the 
good man's advertisement ; he is not squeamish ; there was a quaint 
proverb of the period, that " he would sell his cow must say the 
word," and John Mellis does not object to say the word. What 
he says is this, " That if any be minded to have their children or 
servants instructed or taught in this noble arte of Arithmetike or 
any brief practice thereof. Whose method is by long custome of 
teaching, that (God to friend) he will bring them (if their capacity 
be anything) to their desire therein in a short time. As also 
to learne them to write any manner of hand usuall within the 
Realme of England. Item, also after reasonable understanding 
of Arithmeticke, if any be minded to have them taught the famous 

import. Paryshe Garden was the recognized place for rude sports, bull and bear 

T 3 



2^6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

account of Debtor and Creditor, they shall find him readie to 
accomplish their desire. Morealso, to further such as are desirous 
that way, in the principall of Algebar or Cossuck numbers. 
Lastly to learne to draw any maner of demonstracon. Devise or 
portion. Or to learn them to draw either white or blacke capitell 

letters Of any or all these things rehearsed, you shall 

find the Author (according to his small talent) ready to accomplish 
the same for a reasonable reward. Whose dwelling is and hath 
bin these sixteene yeares within the Mays Gate in Short South- 
warke, nigh Battlebridge." Some fifty years afterwards a noted 
inventor of shorthand was living near, and had done a "New 
1 estament and Singing Psalms of great advantage to learners.'" 
Queen Elizabeth's grammar school was close at hand, so the spot 
had a reputation for learning. 

" The French Quene " as she signed herself, wife to Charles 
Brandon, of Southwark, is said to have had a happy home* in 
Tooley Street and in her garden in the Maze. This happy home 
in the Maze could have been, however, for a short time only, if, 
indeed, she ever lived here. Suffolk Place, opposite St. George's 
Church, was the palace "that the old Duke of Suffolk built 
immediately after he married the godly and vertuous Mary Queen 
Dowager of France. "° I imagine it is a mistake for the happy 
home in Suffolk House by the Park, near St. George's Church, 
— quite another place. Other particulars as to the Abbot of 
Battle's property here are given in Mr. Corner's paper (vol. viii. 
' Collectanea '), e.g., a chamber above the gate, vs. one certain shop 
in the east part of the said gate, rent per annum one red rose." 
A messuage and a garden, rent xvj^. Richard Callenders Brew- 
house, the Sterre Ixj. John Burcestres water mill IxvjV. viij^. About 
this time, i 'J \ Sir R. Copley and his wife sold two water mylls, 

^ Rich, circa 1650. — Notes and Qwiics, August, 1876, p. 115. 

* Miss Strickland and others after her, for which I can find no gi-ound. — " We 
have no notice of Maiy, Duchess of Suffolk, residing in St. Olave's, Tooley 
Street." Dr. Brewer kindly wrote this in answer to my inquiries, and Mrs. 
Everett Green to somewhat the same effect, for which I respectfully thank them. 

' John Elder's letter, Chronicle of Queen Jane. — Camden Society, 1850. 

" Property in Horselydown belonging to St. Olave's Grammar School was, and 
perhaps is now, so held. 



BERMONDSEY CROSS. 2^^ 

called Batell Bridge Milles, which were next the City property the 
Bridge House, and two wharfes and large ponds, for 200/. The 
miller held it at a rent of 15/. 6j. 8^. It was provided that the 
purchasers should have their walks about the banks of the ponds 
and river, for fishing, fowling, and viewing ; the tenants were not 
to meddle with the fish nor put cygnets there. Mill Lane marks 
the actual site, the watercourse flowing down the lane and under 
the bridge, already noted, by which the way along St. Olave's 
Street to Bermondsey and Rotherhithe was kept open. The 
rough cross-barred lines in the map (32) represent the bridge. 
The name still lingers about the site. The stream at the time 
Mr. Corner wrote served as a sewer to the Thames, and was 
arched over from the south side of Tooley Street to the river. 

BARMESE CROSS. 
At the junction of Tooley Street, or rather of the Berghen^, 
with Bermondsey Street, is, in the map (33), the figure of a cross 
standing in the common way — the Bermondsey Cross, a reminder 
of religious worship to the wayfarer, in those earlier days here, 
as now in Catholic countries.^ Some of these crosses were set up 
at the south end of burial grounds, having a rood graven with 
the figure of Christ on the cross. Not only within the church, but 
by the wayside was it the practice of the Anglo-Saxons to raise 
beautifully wrought stone crosses. " The old cross " was often, in 
early deeds of grants of property, a boundary or landmark of a 
township.' Some of the crosses, even by the wayside, possessed 
a privilege of sanctuary — that is, a temporary refuge against 
vengeance and sudden and ill-weighed justice. They also served 
as stations for prayer, or even as guide-posts to some religious 
house near at hand. This cross was north on the way to the dis- 
tinguished Abbey of Bermondsey, as another cross, south, was on 

' Could we divest these emblems of superstitious uses, or could the Churcli 
which chiefly cherishes these beautiful customs itself conform to a common 
instead of to an exclusive Christianity, how much better in every way would it be 
to see crosses unobtrusively and so suggestively about, ihan the coa se n t 
of texts of Scripture on the walls, mixed up with jaunty trade advertisements. 

' Roclv, ' Church of our Fathers.' 



2/8 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

the way from Kent Street to the same abbey. In Agas's map' are 
several crosses, marked as in the public ways — at the south end of 
Paris Garden Lane, at the Barbican, at Charing-, and at the 
Minories. " Near the stone cross " is many times noted.' The 
words red cross, white cross, and the like, indicate further the 
prevalence of the custom. In Red Cross Street up to the Cross, 
says Stow. The crosses have mostly disappeared from populous 
towns like London ; but in remote country places, for instance in 
Cornwall, many a cross, with or without some sacred, rude, weather- 
worn figure, may still be seen — some of them Christian, and some 
apparently still more remote. Many are figured in a handsome 
book, ' The Ancient Crosses of Cornwall,' published in 1858, and 
I believe the like excellent work has been done for other parts of 
England. I should like now to see these beautiful and picturesque 
works about in our ways, sparsely and suitably placed, could we 
but divest them of selfish and superstitious uses. 

BERMONDSEY STREET, 
so called from the earliest times, was the way from Tooley 
Street and Bermondsey Cross to the Abbey. The larger water- 
courses are very persistent, and change their way but little from 
age to age ; first a mere water way, then ditches, " black ditches," 
as I find often noticed in Southwark papers ; then sewers, covered 
or uncovered. One of these crossing Bermondsey Street 
diagonally to Five Foot Lane (now Russell Street), helps me to fix 
the site of Bishop Waynflete's stone bridge, which was erected 
across Bermondsey Street in 1473. In the sewers' presentment, 
1640, MS. Guildhall Library, the Commissioners, Lenthall, Brom- 
field, Featley, names familiar in Southwark, report the sewar in 
Barmondsey, running from the Stone Bridge in Barmondsey Street, 
up to Swan Alley (a litde south to the right), and so to the inn called 
the Hand (further south, opposite Bermondsey Church), and this 
stream is traceable exactly in a plan of the sewers of Southwark, 
which was in the possession of the late Mr, Gwilt. This bridge was 

" Mr. Overall's edition is clieap and easy to be got, and should be in tlie 
possession or every one who feels an interest in old London and its histoiy. 
' Riley. 



BERMONDSEY STREET. 279 

an important work. Bishop Waynflete,^ Fastolf s friend and ex- 
ecutor, obtained licence from the King-, 12 Edw. IV., to build it. 

Watercourses were very numerous — Southwarii was full of them, 
and bridges also were needful, and numerous also ; the older maps 
show bridges in great plenty crossing these little waterways or 
ditches. The larger streams would require such substantial stone 
bridges as Bishop Waynflete's. I notice, for example, a bridge at 
Paris Garden — the Lock Bridge at the east end of Kent Street, of 
somewhat elegant and elaborate architecture — a very substantial 
one ; and one at Battle Bridge in Tooley Street. 

Main streets, such as Bermondsey Street, would even in the 
earlier times show many houses, with fields and extensive yards. 
In the same presentment, 1640, are noticed the present owners and 
occupiers of the house, yards, and grounds adjoining the sewars 
west in Bermondsey Street, running from the stone bridge to the 
yard and ground of George Clark ; the houses were backed by fields 
— it was so even within my own recollection : the new leather 
market near this very bridge was not long since a field, so little 
comparatively did London change until the introduction of railway 
facilities. There would be many inns ; even on the later maps, e.g., 
Stow's ; the names of the courts and alleys shown on both sides 
imply this, such as the Ship, Anchor, Naked Boy, Cross Keys, 
Wheatsheaf, Marigold, Adam and Eve, Sugar Loaf; the Christopher 
Inn, the Blue Anchor, and the Red Bull. In fact the traffic to and 
from the Abbey, and its markets and fairs, must have been very 
considerable indeed, and these inns would not have been too many. 
Metal tokens issued from some of these houses, answering at once 
for money and for trade advertisements, may be seen in the Beau- 
foy collection at Guildhall, in C. R. Smith's collection, and in 
others; notably one, 17th century, "George Cave, Stonebridg in 
Barneby Street.'" 

As to the houses, a stone house well built, like Mr. Goodtyere's 
(Map, 68), might here and there be seen. Harrison* tells us what 

' Historical MSS. Commission, 4th Report, App., p. 464. 

^ Phillips, 'Bei'mondsey,' p. 108, and the catalogues of the collections ; also in 
Manning and Bray, vol. iii., App. cxii. 

'' 'Description of England, 1577-1587,' ed. liy Mr. Fm-nivall for the New 
Shakspcrc .Society, b. 2, c. 12, 1877. 



280 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

these neighbourhoods were. " The greatest part of our buildings 
in the cities and good townes of England consisteth onlie of timber, 
few are made of stone " ; but, as the Spaniard said, " these English 
have houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly as 
well as the King " ; the better houses, plain as they may be out- 
side, are fine inside ; many of the greater " have beene verie 
simple and plaine to sight, which inwardlie have beene able to 
receive a Duke with his whole traine." Fastolf's House,' close 
at hand, was such a place ; it was not only fit, but did entertain 
the highest people. Harrison proceeds, the houses are not built 
one like another, as in foreign cities ; horn windows have gone out, 
lattices are going, and glass is coming in. Chimneys have been 
lately erected ; the smoke is indeed coming freely out of Meester 
Goodtyere's house, and out of the Dutchman's in Long Lane (Map, 
62), a remarkable condition, no doubt, as the draughtsman so plainly 
notices it. Old men of Harrison's village — he was the parson — 
remarked two or three changes in England, at which they mar- 
velled much — I. The multitude of chimneys lately erected; 2. 
" They usually laid upon straw, with a log for a pillow, covered 
onelie with a sheet and a coverlet of dogswain or hopharlot," " as 
for servants, if they had any sheet, it was well, — seldom had they 
any under to keep the pricking straws from their hardened hides." 
But things, he says, are better now ; they get even a flock bed or 
a sacke of chaflfe, and think themselves as well lodged as the lord 
of the towne. 

At one end of Bermondsey Street is the Cross ; at the other end 
the Abbey. Along this thoroughfare would go pilgrims to the 
rood of Grace, which was in Bermondsey. The religious history 
of the country, such as it was, could be well seen at these places.* 
Favourite shrines, as this one was, were visited by thousands of 
people, some wanting health, a good husband as in Margery 
Paston's case,' or relief to an over-burdened conscience, or some 
other favour which they believed might be had from the saint. A 



'' The house in Stonie Lane, .it the rivei' end of Bemiondsey Street, " F.istol 
Place." 

" Brewer, Ileniy VIIL, Rolls piiblic.ntions, vol. iv. p. t, 

' Taston Letters.' 



Mr. goodyere's house, bermondsey. 281 

parliament or two had been held in the Abbey. Funerals of the 
most splendid and impressive character would pass along- this way. 
The Abbot of Bermondsey was the " Dekon " to perform service 
at the funeral of Edward IV. Queen Elizabeth Woodville, the 
Earl of Sussex, and many another dying- here, were conveyed 
away with much pomp. One of the principal conventual schools 
of London, established in 12 13, was here. Accordingly, 
Bermondsey Street in those days was neither dull nor unfre- 
quented. As yet markets and fairs were held on Sundays, and 
probably there was one here, which would make Bermondsey Street 
still more lively on the festival days. Up to 7 Elizabeth they were 
allowed under some not very stringent reg-ulations ; " in all fairs 
and common markets falling upon the Sunday, there be no 
shewing of any wares before the service be done";^ again, as 
showing the monastic association, when a fair was held within the 
precincts of a cathedral or monastery, any man might be obliged 
to take an oath at the gate to deal fairly ; and if he did not, a 
ready way of compulsion was always provided for. 

Half way between Sir Thomas Pope's (Map, 65) and Barmsey 
Cross (Map, 33) is a somewhat stately house, the residence of 
Meester Goodt-yere (Map, 68). Henry Goodyere was alderman 
of London, and some time merchant of the staple at Calais, which 
was then an English possession and a market or staple.' Many 
of the richer people, such as Alderman Goodyere, lived out of the 
city. Sir Thomas Blanke, Lord Mayor 1583, represents that 
many aldermen and citizens have houses without the city specially 
for avoidance of infection, which came frequently, and was always 
deadly.^ After the surrender, and our map is a rough record of 
some of the results, Henry Goodyere, 1544-5, was, with two 
others, possessed of Horseydown, as trustees for the parish of St. 
Olave's, which was not, however, made over to the grammar 
school until 1586. He does not appear to have lived long after 

« Brand's 'Pop. Antiq.,' Bohii's ed. ii. 458. 

^ A company of merchants called of the staple, incorporated by King Edward 
III., in whose time they had staple of wools at Callis. — Stow, 1720, b. v. p. 259. 

' Rolls, Eliz. (Dora.), vol. Ixxxii,, in an interesting document as to certain 
rights of citizens. 



282 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

this. Machyn^ records, 3rd November, 1556, that he was buried 
at St. Towly's, in Southwark, in manner befitting his position; 
that is, with two white branches, twelve staff torches, four great 
tapers, many mourners in blacl<, both men and women, and the 
Company of Leathersellers in their livery. After his death, Hugh 
Goodyere released the above-mentioned land, and confirmed it to 
the governors. In connexion with the suit are certain entries :' 
" It'm, to search in the Courte of Augmentacion for the Surveay 
of the Abbey of Bermondsey ij.s. It'm, the 2Sth of January, we 
went to talke with Mr. Goodyer, and he appointed us to meet at 
the Tempell with our Counsell and his, and so we went to West- 
minster up and downe and to the Tempell and home, xs. vn]d. 
It'm, P^ Mr. Goodyer to seale on feoffment iiij/?'." This will 
probably be sufficient as to Mr. Goodyer's connexions. 

THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN, 
BERMONDSEY (Map, 66). 

It may be as well to know how this particular church came by 
its name. Hatton, in his 'New View of London,' 1708,13 very 
curiously particular. " It is so called," he says, " as being dedi- 
cated to S' Mary Magdalen, sister to Lazarus (who our Lord 
raised from the Dead), and sister also to Martha, as we read in 
the Holy Gospel.'' She was the Daughter of Sirus, by Euchary, 
his Wife, and was called Magdalen, as living with her said Brother 
and Sister at the Castle of Magdala, 2 miles from Nazareth. She 
was very rich and beautiful ; but withal very humble and religious. 
After the Ascension she is said to have lived 30 years in a Desart, 
and then with S' John, died at Ephesus." This is very circum- 
stantial indeed ! It might be that the church was so named after 
a remarkably penitent sinner, who was canonized ; we must be 
content to rest in doubt, — we can never know ; and as to the 
dedication, it is not of much consequence after all, the sine qua non 
being the fitness of the minister and the goodness of his work. 

" Diary. 

'^ Corner, Ilorselydown, p. 15. See ante, p. 254. 

'' On tliis subject sec Adam Clarke on Malthew xxvli. 56, and Luke viii. i, 
s\\\n thinks as Hone, 'Every Day Book,' does, that the prevailing idea is a libel 
on the name oT Magdalen. I hope it is ; the name is very pleasant and musical. 



OLD BERMONDSEY CHURCH. 283 

This church, or the one first on this site, was quite other than the 
conventual church. At S' Mary Overy's, the conventual church 
was the great church ; another attached at the south-east, called 
S' Mary Magdalen Overy, was the parish church — a sort of 
indication that in these great establishments there was often an 
exoteric and an esoteric church — one for the select, another for the 
people — one for grand or great occasions, the other for every-day 
use. 

In one of Wilkinson's plates'' is a ground plan of the Abbey, its 
precincts, and its church. This church, the " ecclesia major Sancti 
Salvatoris de Bermundesey,"* was re-dedicated by the bishop to St. 
Saviour, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the Saints,' in January, 
1338. The original foundation is thus referred to in the annals, 
sub anno 1083 : " The King holds the maner of Bermondsey. 
The new and beautiful church constructed in honour of the 
Saviour is there." The ecclesia major seems to point to another 
church, not the major. Phillips' ' History of Bermondsey,' p. 53, 
says, — ^The first parochial church here of which we have any 
account was situate where the present one is, on the east side of 
Bermondsey Street, northward and contiguous to the Priory. It 
was dedicated to S' Mary Magdalen, and is supposed to have been 
erected by the Convent for the use of their servants and tenants, 
and at length to have been made parochial for the benefit of the 
neighbourhood in general. The date of its foundation is not 
known; but it was probably in the reign of Edward II. The 
Annals ' already referred to, date 1296, say that, — "in this year 
the chapels of the Blessed Sepulchre and of S' Mary Magdalen 
of Bermondsey are in the hands of the prior and convent of 
Bermondsey." A like edifice for the parish and people of S' Mary 

^ ' Londina Illustrata. ' 

« Annales de Bermondeseia, Rolls Edition, p. 473. 

' "Saint" Saviour, not as a saint, but meaning the "holy" Savioui'. 

' This invaluable MS., Harleian, 231, British Museum, a. small quarto on 
vellum of seventy-two leaves, written in a clear hand about the middle of the 
fifteenth century, fortunately escaped the destruction which involved so many of 
the monastic records. It contains the annals of the monasteiy from 1082 to 1432. 
It has been edited by Mr. Luard, and published under the direction of the Master 
of the Rolls. 



284 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

Overy was the chappell of S' Mary Magdalene, which chapel was 
afterwards appointed to be the parish church for the inhabitants. 
No doubt then this chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, 
was first founded as a chapel, and was afterwards appointed to be 
the church for the people of the neighbourhood. Stow says, — 
next unto this Abbey Church standeth a proper church of St. Mary 
Magdalen, builded by the priors of Bermondsey, serving for 
resort of the inhabitants, tenants to the prior, there to have their 
divine service. How long this first fabric lasted is unknown," but 
that part which is the south aisle was begun in 1608, on ground 
belonging to the churchyard, and finished in 16 lO, at a cost of 
860/. In 1619 a turret was erected on the steeple^ and a new 
clock placed. In " 162 1 the steeple was again repaired, and the 
inside of the church trimmed and very commendably beautified at 
the sole cost of the parishioners." Some sixty years after, the 
church being very old, a part of it fell down, and, the rest not 
being likely to stand long, it was taken down and a new one was 
built. The Stow editor says of this church that it is new built, 
very fair and decent, furnished with a large pair of organs, with 
the table standing east and west, and not close to the east wall. 
" Seymour's "= account, 1734, is really worth copying. The 
present structure, he says, is brick rendered over with a finishing, 
the windows and outer doorcases are stone, and stone quoins, the 

° Wilkinson says, upon what authority I know not, that an Earl of Sussex, 
who lived here, was obliged to build a place for public worship at or near to the 
site of the present parish church. But had this family, who lived here to the 
end of the sixteenth centuiy, done more than repair or partially reconstiiict the 
old church, the great repair and enlargement of 1608 could not have been 
necessary, unless indeed this considerable work was done by a Radcliffe, of which 
there is no evidence. 

' 1618, u panic seized the people here : " Upon Sonday last," says the record, 
" by a sodain fright in the church in Bermondsey Street, the people made such 
haste to get out that divers were hurt and maymed, and one youth Uild outright." 
Public Records, vol. cvii. No cause is assigned; but the church was old and 
about to be again largely repaired ; they A\cre now erecting the turret : probably 
this condition of things will account for the panic. 

= "Robert Seymour" was an assumed name. The authors or compilere of 
the ' Survey of London ' were Thomas Cooke, a dramatic writer and classical 
translator, and Mottlcy, the compiler of Joe Miller's \<i%\.%.—Xotcs and Querns. 



BERMONDSEY CHURCH PROPERTIES. 285 

roof is covered with tile, the inside camerated, and supported with 
columns of the Tuscan order. The three aisles are paved with 
brick, but about the altar with black and white marble. There 
is a school at the west end covered with lead, and he might have 
added supported by pillars over the footway. He speaks of 
enrichments in the church, of cherubim, leaves, fruit, and festoons, 
and that the steeple has eight bells to ring in peal. There are 
several views of this church — one about 1804, with old-fashioned 
houses abutting on the churchyard; another in Phillips's 
' History,' showing the west front with the school over the public 
pathway, and one in the same work showing the present condition 
effected in 1830. There is also a view from Hughson's ' London ' 
of the churchyard and the pathway across it, about 1805. 

Bermondsey Church, like others then, was very rich in church 
ornaments, vestments, and the like ; in this instance probably 
many were obtained, at the suppression, from the adjoining abbey. 
The Losely Manuscripts' contain the inventory, "indentyd and 
made of all the plate, juells, ornaments, and bells, wythe in the 
pshe cherche of Mary Mawdelyn of Barmondesey, in the vj"" yere 
of the raynge of ower sov° lorde kyng Edward the syxte." I 
will name a few, using mostly our modern spelling. Chalices of 
gilt ; communion-cups ; copes of white damask with flowers of 
gold, of blue damask, of blue silk with white flowers ; vestments 
of red velvet with a yellow cross, of white Bruges satin with a 
crimson cross, of red Bruges satin with a green cross and St. 
James in the back ; of white bustean for Lent ; deacons' vestments 
of silk, blue, green, and horseflesh colour; banner-cloths of silk, 
painted streamers, and painted banners ; pixes for consecrated 
wafers, and paxes bearing the image of our Saviour on the cross, 
which the people handed to each other to kiss at the conclusion of 
the service (hence Tyndale, " to kiss the Pax, they think it a 
meritorious deed"); a Bible of the largest volume; a pair of 
orgayns; three bells and a sance (sacring) bell. The inventory is 
signed by the churchwardens ; one of them, Harry Etyn, making 
his mark, was probably unable to write. There is further note of 
valuables ; as a pyx, a crysmatory, a sencer, and a pax of silver, 

' By A, J. Kempe, 1836. 



286 OLD SOUTIIWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

sold by the churchwardens at five shillings the ounce ; a cross of 
copper and other old metal of lallyn at fourpence the pound; a 
cope of velvet for 3/. Ss. ?>d. The churchwardens bought some 
articles, such as communion-cups ; they also bought of Sir Thomas 
Pope " a pese of ground to make a ley stall for the soyle of the 
hole pyshe, for otherwise had we none— for the som'e of 3/. 6s. M." 
They paid " for payntyng the scrypter agaynst the Rode lofte and 
over the awter"; this instead of the Popish decorations which 
before had mostly been in these places. They sold all their lattyn 
bokys of parchment for xi. ; these no doubt the missals and other 
books of service ; most of these books no doubt exquisitely illumi- 
nated, and yet sold for so little ! The church porch and repairs 
cost, including "all manere of stufe and workmanshyp," 61. 12s., 
and a communion-table, with a frame, 8j. 

A considerable number of monumental inscriptions are copied 
in Mr. Phillips's ' History of Bermondsey ' : but, with an exception 
or so, they need not be given here. The register, 1604, records a 
solemn vow made between a man and his wife ; he had been long 
absent, and she was again married, but they came together again. 
He said, " Elizabeth, my beloved wife, I am right sorie that I have 
so longe absented mysealfe," &c. ; and she, "Raphe, my beloved 
husband, I am right sorie that I have in thy absence taken another 
man to be my husband, but here before God and this companie I 
do renounce and forsake him," &c. The strange entry, the vow 
to live together again as before, is made in the presence of the 
parson and two others, whose signatures are affixed. Sensible 
people ! but hard upon the second husband. A note is made, 
1624-5, of one James Heriot, who was one of the forty children 
of his father, a Scotchman. Some of Malthus's preventive checks 
were wanting here ! 

Mr. Phillips gives also some five entries of death, at ages from 
1 00 to 105. It is not worth while to investigate as to these 
particular facts. It has, without doubt, often happened that people 
have lived to a hundred years and over, without any reference to 
the doubtful meaning of age in the pre-Noachic or any after-time ; 
and what has often happened may happen often again. Speaking 
as a student in human physiology, it would not, I think, be a 
miracle for a man and d fortiori a woman to live even to 150 



BERMONDSEY PAHSONS : THE WIIITAKERS. 287 

years.'' No doubt, however, that there is a line which cannot be 
outstepped, but it must vary considerably according to the general 
conditions of birth and of the surroundings afterwards. 

Not one of the men who ministered at the church appears, so 
far as the records show, to have been very remarkable ; never- 
theless, more than one might have been like Chaucer's parson ; 
and, so far as I can see, more than one of them was. A poor 
parson of a town, rich in holy thought and work, a learned man, 
a clerk, that Christ-es gospel tru-el-ly would preach ; which fore- 
shadows Whitaker. Browning's case, if I mistake not, will serve, 
at least to illustrate by contrast, Chaucer's picture of the man who 
set not his benefice to hire, or who left his sheep accombered in 
the mire ; and ran, no matter where, to seeken him a chan-ter-y 
for souls. Chaucer's lovely parson dwelt at home and kept his 
fold, so that no wolf might creep in — least of all a wolf himself. 
He did not care for cope and pax, and procession and pricksong : 
"To drawen folk to Heaven was his business." 

And yet, although so pure himself, he knew human nature, and 
was kind and considerate to the sinner. He drew folk to heaven 
by example, and Christ was his example : 

"The love of Christ and His Apostles twelve 
He taught. But first he follow'd it himselve." 

But about Chaucer's time the parsons were poor, and the 
friars were rich. Long after this, in the time especially of 
Charles II., ejected parsons were intent in their ministrations to 
those stricken of the plague, while there were "Pulpits to Let" 

■" The Registrar-General, 1875, reports as follows for England and Wales :^ 
Deaths at ages of 100 and upwards : the age of III was the maximum. 

1 87 1 Males, 25 Females, 44 Total, 69 

1872 24 ,, 51 ,, 75 

1873 „ 10 ,, 79 ,, 89 

1874 ,. 16 ,, S3 ., 69 

187s „ 22 „ 65 „ 87 

Grand Totals ... ,, 97 ,, 292 ,, 389 

Of course, the returns are received from the local people as correct, and it is not 
critically verified. Nevertheless they may, I think, be received as sufficiently 
true approximations. 



288 OLD SOUTHWARK AN^f ITS PEOPLE. 

which should have been filled by those who had been superseded, 
and words like these were about, sarcastically deriding the official 
Gallios: — "A Pulpit to be Let, woe to the idle shepherd that 
leaveth his flock ";° but this is general talk rather than to the 
point. 

Among those who ministered at Bermondsey, I would notice John 
Ryder, M.A., installed 6th Jan., 1581-2, — a learned man, author 
of a Latin dictionary. He passed from one preferment to another 
— Archdeacon of Meath, Dean of St. Patrick's, in this a prede- 
cessor of Swift, and in 1612 Bishop of Killaloe. Edward Elton, 
inst. 1605, an eminent Puritan ; in 1617, as I learn from a diligent 
investigator, Mr. Noble, Elton came into collision with some of his 
parishioners as to the Maypole, " which had been used for honest 
mirth and recreation from the time when the memory of man 
runneth not to the contrary." Some of these parishioners, with 
friends, of the Artillery Garden, intended sport, but Parson Elton 
would not have it so, and desired the constable to strike out the 
heads of their drums, and he preached against it many Sabbath 
days, and called the Maypole people bad names. Further Elton 
and his people " assaulted the said Maypole, and did, with hatchets, 
saws, or otherwise, cut down the same, divided it into several 
pieces, and carried it into Elton's yard," and from the words, " he 
kept the same to his own private use," it is to be feared that he 
actually lit his kitchen fires with the Maypole. No doubt Parson 
Elton was a type of those who did not know human nature. A 
caricature was published in the time of these " unco' righteous," in 
which the Puritan " is hanging of his cat on Monday for killing of 
a mouse on Sunday." Elton seems to have caught a little of 
this spirit, rather than that which was in Chaucer's poor parson. 

There are two Whitakers — Jeremiah and William his son. 
Jeremiah died, parson of the parish, in 1654. He was a member 
of the Assembly of Divines, convoked by Parliament in 1643 to 
consider as to the Church. "William, called, in 1654, to succeed 
his father as Rector of Bermondsey, was a minister indeed; 
skilled in languages — Greek, Latin, and Oriental; fit to be a 
tutor at his college, i.e., Emmanuel, at Cambridge ; a peacemaker, 

'- 1665. Broadsides, Society of Anliqunries, 



RECTORS OF BERMONDSEY. 289 

whose pride it was to settle disputes and leave no rancour behind ; 
just the man, making a conscience of his work, to be ejected. So 
in 1662 he was no longer Rector of Bermondsey. In Wilkinson's 
plan of Bermondsey Square is "the Reverend Mr. Whitaker's 
meeting-house," in King John's Court, Bermondsey Square, 
occupying, as appears, and so far as we can know, a part of the 
very site of the same old Conventual Church that Sir Thomas 
Pope destroyed. Like his father, much beloved, his congregation 
of the church lament the parting audibly and in tears, and so no 
doubt he is influenced to remain at hand. He as well as many 
another ejected minister of great learning and worth became a 
private teacher. So general was this practice, that it helped 
most effectually to build up dissent, and is indeed worth con- 
sideration as a great factor towards beneficial changes in fostering 
a much higher tone of religious thought in our country. His 
house full of candidates in Divinity, he became a teacher of 
preachers and a father of divines. I have by me a picture of the 
wooden house, with one gallery, which was built for him in 1699, 
and which remained as a place of worship for about a hundred 
years. One of his successors at this meeting-house, Isaac 
Mauduit, is said to have preached at St. Mary Magdalen's, Ber- 
mondsey, a sermon on the death of King William III., but 
whether the parish or the parish church is meant I do not know ; 
but as he is said to have practised "occasional conformity," and 
the family monuments are noted in the church, it was probably 
there the sermon was preached. In the end ministers far gone 
in Arianism preached from Whitaker's pulpit, and the thing died 
out; now Wesley's people took it, he himself preaching there 
from time to time.' That there should have been two erratic 
meeting-houses on the very site of the old abbey, in Long Walk 
and in St. John's Court ! But there are fashions and customs and 
changes, in forms of religion as in other matters. In 1624 
Thomas Paske, D.D., was the Rector ; in 1620 he was Master of 
Clare Hall, Cambridge; in 1624 he resigned the Vicarage of 
Hendon for this Rectory; and in 1644 he was ejected by the 
" contagious breath of sectaries."' Why, may be inferred. 

" Wilson, Hy,, 'Dissenting Churches, ' vol. iv., p. 341. 
' General bill of mortality of Clergy, 1641, 1647. Soc. Antiq., Broadsides. 

V 



290 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

There were ordinances this year for abolishing- images and objects 
of superstition. Paske was no doubt a High Churchman ; before 
him was Elton, the Puritan, and after him Whitaker, the 
Puritan ; and this Laudian divine between them. The theological 
barometer is up and down, and shows considerable disturbance in 
these times. In 1654 Richard Parr, D.D., Archbishop Usher's 
chaplain, is Rector. He had, one time or another, many prefer- 
ments ; he was Vicar of Reigate, and Vicar of Camberwell, which 
last he held from 1654 to his death, in 1691. He was a ready 
and good preacher, and is said to have broken up two 
" conventicles " by his attractive powers. A real man, no doubt, 
as a specimen from his sermon in 1658, before Mr. Justice 
Hale" and others, at St. Mary Overy's, will show. A good 
sermon preached before such a man as Hale is worth notice. 
His text most suitably taken — 2 Chronicles xix. 6, 7 : " And 
said to the judges, Take heed what ye do : for ye judge 
not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judg- 
ment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you ; 
take heed and do it : for there is no iniquity with the Lord our 
God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." Such a text 
might have saved one of the greatest lights of that age, and 
perhaps the sad history of Lord Bacon was in the mind of this 
preacher. The specimen following is his appeal to the judges 
and the people against the tippling-houses. "There is one 
grievance more," he says, " you must help this country in, and 
rid the country of those innumerable pest houses ; we mean the 
tippling houses, that pester the whole Nation and ruine whole 
families. . . . Sirs, you that are the standing magistrates of the 
County, will it be for your honour, think you, to give license to 
such ? — so many ? Some you say must be ; but why so many ? " 
Further, "If you mean not to suppress them, let these mottoes 
be on the sign and over the Door, — ' Here you may buy beggery 
and disgrace at a deare rate : here you may learn the way to the 
Stocks, the Gaol, the Gallows, and to Hell' "; but see the note 
below I " 

" A great judge was Matthew Hale, yet one who, avowing his belief in witch- 
craft, condehmed some poor women as witches, to death. 

" No doubt this man was impassioned and, what is more, real. But such 



RECTORS OF BERMONDSEY. 29 1 

I come now to a man of quite another sort, not to be compared 
with any of these ; but I must tell the story, albeit later than my 
time. William Browning, a fellmonger, purchases a limited 
advowson of the Rectory, and presents William Taswell, D.D., 
who occupies, perhaps as (what is vulgarly called) a warming- 
pan, from 1723 to 1726-7, and then resigns. The son of the 
patron-purchaser, the Reverend W. Browning, M.A., is now 
presented, and continues to be the minister until his death, 1740. 
Mr. Browning appears to think that he has not as yet had money's 
worth, and so he presents John Paget, M.A. ; a lawsuit ensues, 
and as Mr. Browning has exceeded his time, his nominee, or clerk, 
as he is called, is in due course ejected. Thus far, as I think, 
there is every possible variety of supply for the people of Ber- 
mondsey, and it is very provocative of thought, as to the 
moulding of the people, who could not have been, humanly 
speaking, very different under the Romish Clergy and Paske, to 
what they were under the Puritans, Elton and Whitaker, or under 
the worldly wise man. Browning, or under the Realist, Parr ; and 
yet they were dealt with as quite soft clay. This is all to some 
extent rather contemptible. The friends of the Puritans placed in 
the church an inscription to the two good men of their persuasion, 
which, except as a record, is scarcely worth preserving; but it 
shall speak for itself : — 

"Where once the famous Elton did intrust 
The preservation of his sacred dust, 
Lies pious Whitaker ; both justly twin'd, 
Both dead, one grave ; both living, had one mind ; 
And by their dissolution have supply'd 
The hungry grave, and Fame and Heaven beside. 
This stone protects theire bones ; vifhile Fame enroules 
These deathless names, and Heaven embrase theire soules. " 

They could scarcely have had one mind : Elton, harsh and not 

appeals serve not long, except perhaps in individual cases. The trade will 
always be ; the remedy, what ? — that the dealers shall be good men, and of 
standing ; that the commodity shall be pure under penalty — the best of its kind. 
In this way the best men in the trade would be encouraged in their competition 
with the worst. This mode of proceeding would not be displeasing to the trade, 
woiild of course have the sympathy of the public, and might probably have saved 
the late Liberal Ministry. 

U 2 



292 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

very famous ; Whitaker, chosen in 1643 as one of the Assembly 
of Divines, and beloved by every one. 

SIR THOMAS POPE AND BERMONDSEY. 

The name of Syr Thomas Pope appears in the Map (65). This 
means that the Abbey of Bermondsey, which had been some 
hundreds of years a foremost foundation, as priory and abbey, had 
now become the property, and at first the town house, of Sir 
Thomas Pope. At the dissolution of the monasteries and after, 
he had obtained this abbey and much spoil beside. I should like 
to dwell a little upon this fortunate courtier ; his character and 
success are worth a study. " In a foremost place, he contrived to 
flourish undisturbed throughout the reigns of Henry, Edward, 
Mary, and Elizabeth," — not like the Vicar of Bray, untroubled 
with any squeamish dislike to manifest and thorough-going change 
(for Sir Thomas was always a good Catholic), but by pure tact 
and some kindness of spirit and manner, he mitigated, but never 
aggravated, trouble. " He was chosen to carry to Sir Thomas 
More the news of his intended martyrdom ; in favour with More's 
enemies, he was not less in favour with More himself."' He had 
a great deal to do with the suppression of abbeys ; but he had 
nothing to do with the hanging of abbots. He received the sur- 
render of St. Albans, but he saved the abbey church from being 
pulled down ; he was so much in favour with Queen Mary as to 
be the keeper of the Lady Elizabeth, but he was in favour with 



" The interview is worth noting. " On the fifth day of July, 1 535, he waited 
on Sir Thomas to acquaint him that lie must suffer death before nine of the clock 
the same morning, and to prepare himself 'Master Pope,' said More, 'I 
most heartily thank you for your good tidings. ' It was urged that he should not 
use many words at his execution. To this More was ready to submit ; but said he, 
' I beseech you, good Mr. Pope, to gett the King to suffer my daughter Margaret 
to be present at my burial.' This Pope promised, and not able to contain him- 
self, burst into tears. On leaving his friend. More with his usual composure 
said, ' Quiet yourself, and be not discomforted, for I trust that we shall one day 
in heaven see each other full merrily, where we shall be sure to live and love 
together in joyful bliss eternally.' And furtlrer, after the manner of physicians, 
he pretended, by holding up a glass of his water, to cast his case. 'This man,' 
said he, observing the water, 'might have lived longer if it had pleased the 
King.' "— Warton's ' Life of Sir Thomas Pope,' 1772, pp. 34, 35. 



SIR THOMAS POPE. 293 

Elizabeth notwithstanding-.^ He was one of the best of the men 
engaged in the process of confiscating and redistributing the goods 
of the monasteries. But high honour and Catholic^ principles did 
not hinder him from being almost omnivorous when any abbey 
lands had to be devoured. But we must consider human nature, 
especially the human nature of a courtier. How could he be 
expected to see the rich spoil going right and left — more left than 
right — without some breach of the Tenth Commandment ? He had 
to get on, both in position and pocket; he aimed to do good, 
partly because he was of a kindly nature and loved to do good, 
partly, I think, as an expiation for his participation in doubtful 
matters troublesome to the conscience; and he evidently had a 
conscience. It was the custom of the time to balance the earlier 
ill deeds of people by good deeds and riches bestowed at the last : 
it was not possible for a sinner to take his riches with him ; 
accordingly, some of this man's possessions passed in kindly gifts 
to people, and much in founding a college at Oxford. The spirit 
of the man is shown in his will, from which a few interesting items 
may be quoted : " Black cootes or gownes " to all " executors, 
retainers, household servants, overseers, friends and kindred as 
shall happen to be in his house at the time of his decease "; 20I. or 
more in alms to the poor; 40 shillings besides to twenty poor 
men and twenty women, with a gowne of good mantell fryse each, 
and after that more in alms ; to many prisons, including the King's 
Bench, Marshalsea, and New Counter in Southwark, 18/. ; to 
kindred, 783/. 5j. "and xl. marks " ; to his cousin, Jane Haukes, a 
cup of silver ; to his son-in-law^ the third part of alt his armour 
and artillerie, best gauntletts and targett, and best horse ; to his 
mother-in-law a fair new bowl of silver ; to another son-in-law^ 

° Saturday Review, 

^ Catholic. I use the word always in the sense of Roman Catholicism in its 
more normal condition, ready to give, that is, as to take. 

■* He had three wives, and said this of the last : — I am ' ' hartely soiy I am 
able to give her no more, to recompens her most honest, obedient, and womanly 
behaviour towardes me in my life tyme, which hath byn such as well hath meryted 
a thousand tymes more than I am able any waye to give her, " and more of the 
same kindly sort. She was evidently too good to be disregarded ; she accordingly 
married again before the year was out. Sir Thomas died in January, 1559, and 
she was married for the third time before December. — ' Life,' p. 184. 



294 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

fifty angels to make him a chain, and his mother's picture in a 
bracelet of gold " which I ware about my arme, which bracelett 
was the first toliyn that ever his mother gave me "; to nine of his 
servants, 58/. 13^. 4d., besides gratuities to all the rest of every 
sort ; praying his executors that if his wife should not find it con- 
venient to retain them after his death, they should help the said 
servants to some worshipful man's service. Then come the gifts 
to Trinity College. He remembers various children of poor 
tradesmen. His whistle, shaped like a dragon and set with stones, 
which he commonly wore, he leaves to Nicholas Bacon. He is 
painted by Holbein with a whistle at his chain, shaped like a 
mermaid. The use of these, then worn by all people having 
servants, is obvious. In one draft of his will, afterwards altered, 
he bequeaths to each of the overseers a faire jugge of silver, with 
a death's head in a roundell, and his initials graven on the cover. 
Several rings he gave, each to weigh an ounce, his initials on one 
side, a death's head on the other, like the tombstone reminder, 
"As I am now so you will be, therefore prepare to follow me." 
The times must have been the better for the existence of such a 
man ; he must have disarmed some, at least, of the rancour. He 
was a rigid papist, but was prudent, and he was not the man to 
incur suspicion in his kindly efforts in favour of those pursued by 
his own Church. 

Joined in 1557 in a commission with Thirelby, Bonner, and others 
for the more effectual suppression of heretics, he could not but 
have acted in mitigation. The commission was ordered to detect 
persons refusing to preach the sacrament of the altar, or to hear 
mass, or to take holy bread or holy water. People were to frequent 
their respective churches, and to assist in solemn processions. An 
Inquisition, modified according to the temper of those who adminis- 
tered it. " That Pope's prodigious property was accumulated in 
consequence of the destruction of the religious houses is not 
denied, and he was comparatively very poor and of obscure family 
to begin with." Warton' "could give, in minute detail, from the 
most authentic evidence, the grants of abbey land which he 

^ 'Life of Sir Thomas Pope,' 1772; a scarce and very honest book, from 
which I have t?iken most of my material, 



SIR THOMAS POPE. 29S 

received during the time of Henry VIII." He says, however, that 
it may suffice to note generally that before 1556 he appears to 
have actually possessed more than thirty manors in different 
counties, besides other estates and several advowsons, some 
given to him by Henry VIII., some acquired by purchase, while he 
was connected with the Court of Augmentations. Now, when it 
is understood that this court was appointed to estimate the value 
of lands of dissolved monasteries and to receive their revenues, 
and that he was the treasurer of it, it does seem, in receiving as 
much as he did, that, to use the words of the Saturday Review, 
" he sailed as near to the wind as an honest man could without 
passing the line." At the present time, if such confiscation were 
possible, such action by a chief officer of the court would, no doubt, 
be impeachable; somewhat as if our minister had in the late 
changes of the Irish Church obtained at small cost much of its 
property. Of course, he was not alone in such transactions ; 
another distinguished man of Southwark, Sir Anthony St. Leger, 
a Knight of the Garter and Deputy in Ireland for the King, was 
actively employed in the dissolution of the monasteries. He also 
had his reward in a grant among others of the inn in St. Olave's 
parish which belonged to the Abbot of St. Augustine." It would 
be curious to know accurately how much of the spoil passed into 
the hands of those officially connected with the change, and of 
those so immediately about the Court that they could easily have 
the first news as to these coveted openings. In the report of the 
Commissioners are frequent little requests for good things on 
behalf of a Commissioner, for himself or for his friends. But to 
give true judgment, and to estimate morals rightly, we must weigh 
the differences of the times. The standard, even of morals, varies 
in different ages. During the time of founding his college, IS54-S, 
Pope chiefly resided at Clerkenwell, " a capital messuage and 
seyte of the late dissolved monastery," granted to him by Queen 
Mary. In the country he lived much — at Tyttenhanger, in Hert- 
fordshire, which had been the seat of the Abbot of St. Alban's. 
He seems also for some time, so early at least as 1546, to have 



Comer, 



296 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

been settled at Bermondsey in Southwark/ at which place and in 
the neighbourhood he had acquired a very considerable property. 
In IS44, 36 Hen. VIII., he was one of the Commissioners of Array 
for furnishing 40 able men to fight for the king. The Southwark 
proportion was 20 men — 16 archers and 4 billmen. 

The earliest notice of Pope's connexion with Bermondsey I 
find in this, that " Edward Powell is licensed to alienate a messuage 
there to Thomas Pope, Kn*., the same year the monastery was 
dissolved." Three years and more after the surrender, i.e., 1541, 
the site of the abbey was granted to the Master of the Rolls, Sir 
Robert Southwell, at a yearly reserved rent of 10 shillings. This 
was the 8th July; and on 30th August following, by deed of 
bargain and sale, he conveyed the estate to Sir Thomas Pope and 
Elizabeth, his wife, in fee ; this sale was afterwards confirmed by 
letters patent. Sir Thomas now proceeded to build himself a 
house ; he pulled down the old church, with the adjacent buildings, 
most probably only in part, and with the materials made himself 
a mansion, which he called Bermondsey House ; it had orchards, 
edifices, gardens, stable, barns, pasture, and ponds, about twenty 
acres in all. In 1554-S he reconveyed the mansion so built to 
Sir R. Southwell, all except the " maner and its appertinencies," 
and such other abbey estates as he had purchased of Sir Robert 
in 1S41-2. 

The short time the Rectory was in Pope's hands he installed two 
rectors to the living — ^John Lewys, ISS3-4) and Alexander English. 
The manor itself and the estates and advowson of the Rectory 
were sold, and conveyed to Robert Trapp, citizen and goldsmith, 
in 1556; from him and his representatives, the Paulets, the 
Winchester family, it has come down, all which is related in the 
first volume of Manning and Bray's ' History of Surrey.' From the 
rapidity with which this and some other possessions passed from the 
hands of those who first, in name or in fact, obtained them, there is 
perhaps a shade of collusion, which must, if more than shade, modify 
the favourable character so generally given of Sir Thomas Pope. 
For instance, a grant in fee of a manor which had belonged to the 
Hospital of St. Thomas k Becket was made 15th September, 1545, 

' Warton's Life, p. 168. Bermondsey was, however, not as yet included in 
Southwark, 



POPE FOUNDS A COLLEGE : lilS DEATH. 297 

to Andrews and Grose, and the next day it was conveyed to Sir 
Thomas Pope. Having during his life obtained these vast posses- 
sions, he resolved at the last to do a great work — to found a 
college, that of Trinity, at Oxford, which he did, March, I5SS- 
In May he furnishes to the college necessaries and implements of 
every kind, to the library and chapel in particular ; and, that which 
may possibly concern Bermondsey and its records, he gave no 
inconsiderable collection of valuable and costly books, printed and 
manuscript ; to the chapel, silver vessels, embroidered vestments, 
copes of tissue, crosses, and illuminated missals. Of course, many 
such things came into possession from other dissolved houses ; 
but among the church ornaments of Bermondsey, rendered to Sir 
Thomas Ca warden and other Commissioners in 1552, were silver 
vessels, vestments embroidered with flowers of gold, copes, many 
of the richest, crosses, and Latin books of parchment, that is, 
missals. The ceremonial furniture of the church at Bermondsey 
had been remarkably plentiful and rich,' and was obtained most 
likely from the dissolved monastery at hand, which, from its great 
distinction, must have been full of such possessions. With all this, 
and with the founder's suave and pleasant manner, it seems but 
natural that the college should have feasted him as they did at his 
visitation on St. Swithin's Day, 1555. Among other good things 
mentioned are four fat does and six gallons of muscadel ; and 
twelve minstrels made it otherwise pleasant to the company. The 
time, however, came at length to him as to all men. About 1558 
one of those pestilential fevers common in England is said to have 
destroyed perhaps three parts in four of the people of England ; 
among the rest thirteen bishops and men and women of the most 
eminent rank and quality. It is supposed that Sir Thomas Pope 
died of this pestilence 29th January, 1559. In a half -prophetic 
way he had devised a building at Garsington, near Oxford, to 
which the society might retire in time of danger. "That fair 
quadrangle of stone " was built after his death. 

It might have been better if the statesmen of the time could 
have ordered it so that the pest should have retired from them 
instead of their running away from the pestilence — a lesson which 

' Loseley MS. — Kempe. 



298 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

had to be learned, and concerning which elaborate reports from 
the College of Physicians were made afterwards, in, for example, 
1637, making it all clear enough that these people were destroyed 
and the land nigh depopulated in consequence of the stolid, filthy 
invitations always being given to disease and death. 

Sir Thomas being dead has to be buried, and this he desires to 
be done without pomp ; the way they did it is as follows : — His 
body was carried to the church of Clerkenwell, laid under a herse 
or shrine illuminated with wax tapers, for the space of a week j 
on the seventh day, with a standard, a coat, a pennon or banner 
of arms, a target, helmet, sword, and four dozen of arms, with 
twelve for the branches of wax tapers and six for the shrine ; 
attended by two heralds, twenty poor men and twenty poor 
women carrying torches, the men cloathed in mantle frieze gowns, 
the women in rails (white veils). Sir Richard Southwell and 
sixty or more other knights and gentlemen in black were 
mourners. After offerings at the high altar the company went 
back to banquet, and were refreshed with spiced bread and wine. 
The next day came the morrow mass, at which were three songs, 
one a mass of requiem, all sung by the clerkes of London. The 
old knight was then buried, and according to the custom the 
company went back and had a very great dinner' and plenty of 
all things, and a great dole of almes was distributed among the 
poor. There are many portraits of Sir Thomas Pope, all 
probably copied from the valuable picture by Holbein, in pos- 
session of Lord Guildford, at Wroxton ;' at his breast is the 
whistle, resembling a mermaid, appended to a chain : some of 
these prints can be readily obtained. 

To take leave of Sir Thomas Pope and his memory pleasantly, 
let me. give an anecdote of his charming little grand-niece, just 
born at Wroxton when James I. was king. On his round, enjoy- 
ing a little hawking and bear-baiting, according to the fashion 

' These funerals usually wound up with a great dinner, absolute grief was 
evidently not expected, and a pleasing recollection of a patron and friend out of 
sight was secured. See Machyn's Diaiy, which one might almost call a mono- 
gi-aph on funerals. The diarist evidently appears to think that nothing becomes 
a man's life so much as his leaving it. 

' Granger. 



BERMONDSEY ABBEY. 299 

of the time, the little lady of Wroxton was presented to the king, 
with this quaint epigram in her hand, — 

See, this little mistres here, 
Did never sit in Peter's chaire, 
Or a triple crowne did weare ; 
And yet she is a Pope. 

No benefice she ever sold, 
Nor did dispense with sins for gold ; 
She hardly is a sev'n-night old, 
And yet she is a Pope. 

No king her feet did ever kisse, 

Or had from her worse look than this ; 

Nor did she ever hope 

To saint one with a rope ; 

And yet she is a Pope. 

A female Pope you 'II say, a second Joan ; 
No, sure — she is Pope Innocent, or none. ^ 

The king was, as he ought to be, delighted. 

The abbey, the spoils of which came to Sir Thomas Pope, was 
surrendered 1537-8. A full sketch of the Priory and Abbey of 
Bermondsey is a-, matter demanding a paper to itself. Here it 
may suffice to say that it was established in 1082 by a London 
citizen ; at first as a cell or subordinate connexion of a French 
priory — of La Charity on the Loire ; it became very famous, was 
patronized by rich and great men,' and had very much property 
bestowed upon it. In the troubles of the kingdom, especially in 
those with France, the priory knew many vicissitudes, was for- 
feited and restored, fined and troubled in many ways ; here was a 
retreat for noble people, notably Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of 
Edward IV., who died here, as did also many others of high rank, 
among them the widow of Henry V., who had condescencfed to 
the Welsh chief, Owen Tudor, marrying him soon after the king's 
death.* Parliaments were held here, though rarely. The abbot 
was a great man, known as the Lord of Barmsey; he figured 
among the first in the great ceremonials of the time, and his 

== Warton's Life, p. 413. 

' Manning and Bray, ' Surrey '| ; and Dugdale. 

■• For which act, he at length to Newgate, and she to Bennondsey Abbey. 



300 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

powers were as a little king in his own dominions, even, it appears, 
to life and death." At length, in the general spoliation, the abbey 
was surrendered, and if all the Water Poet says" was true, it 
deserved its fate. It began with a far stricter discipline than 
most others — contentment with the meanest things and absolute 
poverty ; it ended as a scandal to the neighbourhood. The last 
abbot, Robert Wharton, or Parfew, must have assisted very 
pleasantly in the surrender, as, personally, he made a very good 
thing of it, and retired with a considerable income and the 
Bishopric of Hereford. To visit Bermondsey Abbey as a pilgrim 
was a work of grace. Here was a celebrated cross which did 
wonders both for body and soul. To visit it in a becoming spirit 
was to wipe off much deserved punishment in purgatory, and to 
remove disease ; and this cross was efficacious for other more 
interesting purposes. So John Paston, 1465, writes to his mother, 
— "As lowly as I can I beseech your blessing," telling her what 
strait he is in for hose — the nobleman was badly off for stockings ; 
in a kindly way he says as to his sister, — " I pray you, mother, 
visit the Rood of Northdoor and St. Saviour at Bermondsey, 
while ye abide in London, and let my sister Margery go with you 
to pray to them that she may have a good husband ere she come 
home again." In fact there was some trouble in obtaining a hus- 
band for Margery : when she met with one they didn't like him ; but 
she apparently did very much, and this in such cases is more to the 
point. 

The Manor-house, Bermondsey House, must have been a noble 
and costly edifice ; the site of it is represented by the present 
Bermondsey Square and the adjacent land. We need indulge in 
no mere conjecture as to the grandeur of this mansion. In its 
previous condition, queens and other not much less distinguished 
people could be lodged and entertained over and above the usual 
numerous inhabitants of a great abbey.' At a somewhat later 

' The Prior and Monks of Bermondsey had the franchise of Royal and 
Criminal Jurisdiction, Infangthef, Theft, Smnmons, and Inquest, and had a gaol 
and gaol delivery within their district. — City Solicitor, 1818. 

"He implies the worst — that in fact it was a very loose place . 

' 'Paston Letters,' Knight's ed., vol. i, p. 191. 

' Manning and Bray, vol. i., Phillips's History, &c. 



THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN AT BERMONDSEY. 3OI 

time it became the residence of a great officer of state ; here 
the Queen visited him; "on Tuesday last, May 27th, 1594, Her 
Majesty came to London to see my Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of 
Sussex,' who was very sick." He lived at Bermondsey. 

As to the noble construction of Sir Thomas Pope's mansion, 
much of it remained even up to this last century; portions, 
evidently of a great mansion, were still left to be investigated by 
skilled and enthusiastic men. Carter, second to none as both 
architect and antiquary, — Buckler, architect and enthusiast as to 
his native parish, — Wilkinson, in his ' Londina,' — and Manning and 
Bray, — all these leave little to be desired. It has been said that Sir 
Thomas Pope reconveyed the mansion to Sir Robert Southwell in 
1554-S ; afterwards it became the residence of Thomas RatclifFe, 
Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth; the precise 
date I don't know, but in 1570 the queen visited _him here.' She 
must have done so several times. In 15 75 the Earl of Sussex is 
here "taking physic." In fact, the place is lodging, hospital, 
place of general relief, and what not. 1563, the Lady Lane died 
in childbirth at the late Abbey of Bermondsey." So early as 1377 
" one is ill under the care of the prior of Bermondsey, and one of 
our kings came to Bermondsey to be cured of the leprosy." In 
1583 the earl died here. In the codicil to his will, dated May 21st, 
1583, he orders that his executors shall keep house at Bermondsey 
twenty days after the interment, and they were to expend 1,500/. 
and no more ; but they did spend more, the funeral charges alone 
amounting to 1,629/. 5^. O^ii., and for housekeeping they spent 
i5g/. 8s. 2d. The inventory of his effects in Bermondsey House 
amounted to 1,585/. These were large sums, and must be multi- 
plied by perhaps eight to give us the notion of how much it would 
amount to now. The funeral charges of 1,629/., by the side of the 
value of his goods, 1,585/., appear somewhat out of proportion. 
But we must recollect he was a great officer of state, his burial 
place was far off in Essex, and his body was to be accompanied 
by a great procession. There were 45 poor men in black gowns, 

» Hist. MSS. Commission, App. to fourth Report, p. 336 ; this probably 
refersrto the son ; if the father the date is wrong. 
' NichoUs, ' Progresses of Queen Elyzabeth. ' 
' Machyn, 'Diary.' 



302 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

120 serving men in black coats on horseback, 95 gentlemen in 
black; then came heralds, then the deceased, drawn by four 
geldings ; next came the succeeding earl, followed by eight other 
lords. The Earl of Essex was there, as were the Lord Mayor 
and Aldermen, Gentlemen of Grey's Inn, and the Company of 
Merchant Taylors in their liveries. It is something to witness 
such a procession as this, if only in the mind's eye, setting out 
from Bermondsey House. . Notwithstanding this pomp and 
expense, the family were poor, perhaps on account of the like 
ways; Earl Henry, who was here in 1587, is said to have had 
but 4S0/. a year.' 

A quaint old book,^ pleasant to read, albeit of old botany and the 
nature of plants according to the belief of the time, tells us that 
bitter-sweet grows " by a ditch side against the garden wall of 
the Right Honorable the Earl of Sussex his house in Bermondsey 
Street by London, as you go from the court which is full of trees, 
unto a farm house neare thereunto." And melons, he says, are 
in very great plenty, near the same house in Bermondsey, 
especially if the weather be anything temperate. The grounds 
of the mansion extended to that part which is now known as 
the Neckinger, and Gerard will, I think, help us to the original 
meaning of the name. He says of the wild willow herbe, that it 
is to be found nigh the place of execution at St. Thomas a 
Watering (near where now is the Green Man), and by a style by 
the Thames bank, near to the Devil's Neckerchief, on the way to 
Redriffe." The DeviVs neckerchief would seem to be euphemistic, 
or slang, for the gallows, or the rope, or the " hempen collar." In 
Atkinson's 'Glossary' "neckinger" is a neckerchief, as "muckinger" 
is a dirtied handkerchief. The variations of old English words 
are common enough, as "kercher," "handkercher." In short, the 
Neckinger is nothing more than neckerchief, but implies, I think, 
its proximity to a place of execution, the " Devil's Neckerchief on 
the way to Redriffe." 

" Buckler, MS., British Museum. 

' ' Gerard's Herball,' 1597, by John Gerard, Surgeon, Master in Chirurgerie. 

' The topography must have changed but little from Gerard's time to the 
middle of the i8th century. The Devil's Neckerchief is there still in, say 174a, 
Map, B.M. King's 'Maps and Plans,' xxvii. 



REMAINS OF SIR THOMAS POPE's MANSION. 303 

An apparently complete picture of the abbey is appended to 
a published copy of Van Den Wyngrerde's Map, 1543, in the 
Bodleian : it is said to be taken from " a drawing in the possession 
of Mr. Upcott," and it is further borne out in a later map of 
Faithorne's. 

Elaborate pictures of the remains of Sir Thomas Pope's 
mansion are in Wilkinson/ with much illustrative text. Late in 
the last (the i8th) century were remains enough still left for the 
most intelligent research and descriptions of Carter and Buckler. 
These I shall presently note. Standing at the eastern extremity 
of Long Lane we see before us where now is Abbey Street, as 
yet no thoroughfare, large and small Gothic gateways, together 
the west gate, admitting into the first courtyard. Entering this 
court, which would comprise the first thirty or forty yards of the 
now Abbey Street, and looking east, on our left is the churchyard 
of the parish church, St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey ; on the 
right a zigzag cross, probably a Saxon ornament, is seen let into 
the wall — an object of veneration no doubt to passers by, as 
crosses, whether standing alone or fixed, were here in early times, 
and abroad now. Whether this particular cross thus set con- 
spicuously in the wall of the outer court by the chief entry, and 
at the west of the gate of it, was the object of pilgrimage or no 
I cannot say. Dugdale' says that " the Rood or Cross of Ber- 
mondsey, to which pilgrimages were occasionally made, is stated 
to have been found in the Thames in 11 17," which from its 
antiquity makes it more than probable that the Saxon cross affixed 
to the wall was this very Rood of Bermondsey. And John 
Paston, in the instance already cited, 1465, speaks of the rood of 
the north door. In this first court we see now an opening to the 
right, probably the site of the north gateway leading to the 
courtyard of the mansion, or great close. This courtyard is 
now Bermondsey Square ; and the gateway was where the open- 
ing now is from Abbey Street, leading to the square. 

Carter, lost in some sort of ecstasy, says, how prodigious must 
have been the elevations when entire; the general plan of the 

' 'Londina lUustrata' : one said to be from an original drawing of 1679, 
♦ 'Abbey of Bermondsey,' p. 94. 



304 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

remains, he says, gives walls set at right angles to each other ; 
the greatest extent from east to west, say, 630 feet ; width, say, 
225 feet. 

The arrangement, I quote his words, must have been vast and 
magnificent. " It is no difficult matter, and I conceive no presump- 
tion, to affirm that there were two large gateways on the west, 
three great courts beside inferior ones, a second cloister, 
dormitory, and refectory. The walls of the old abbey were 
not all taken down, but were used as foundations and as part 
elevation by Sir Thomas Pope, some showing even now early 
brickwork of the time of Edward IV." 

As to the old abbey and its people, I hope to be able to give at 
some future time a special paper more in detail. To those who are 
very curious and will take the trouble to separate wheat from chaff, 
the papers left by Mr. Buckler to the British Museum will be vastly 
interesting.' He often employs the word "conjecture"; but the 
books are full of facts and sound inference. A curious first condition 
of this valuable bequest is recorded in one of the volumes. The 
books were left on the condition that they should be shut up from all 
inspection for thirty years, that is until 1889. Happily for me, the 
Librarian of the British Museum prevailed upon the donor to 
leave his bequest unconditionally, and that it should be at once 
open to the public. Accordingly I have been able to copy some 
of these most excellent notes and drawings. The notes contain a 
great deal of verbal indignation against Sir Thomas Pope and 
other early spoilers of the abbeys, who, it must be said, have all 
of them been very long asleep ; — further, the living have condoned 
it all. And now, looking back over the vista, it is hard to see 
how we could be what we are but for these changes. 

The pictures of rooms and the plans in Wilkinson, and the 
map of 1746, by Rocque, will repay manyfold any trouble that 
the interested inquirer may take. Our public libraries, especially 
the British Museum and that at the Guildhall, are conducted so 
liberally, and the attendance is, as a rule, so courteously given, 
that any who wish to see may do so. I would add that in the 
drawings of Buckler's 'the old walls of houses and gardens are 

" Two vols. MS. Additional, 24,432 text; and 24,433, 'Sketches and Drawings 
of the Abbey of Bermondsey.' 



KENT STREET. 305 

shown freely, and are curiously ornamented with various devices 
of trellis, triangles, cross keys, and the like. Buckler worked 
upon the subject of these volumes with much care and affection 
from 1 80S to 1820, and it is evident that he was well qualified in 
the fourfold capacity of artist, antiquary, architect, and denizen. 
To sum up as to this Lord of Barmsey, and with a thought or two 
connected with his career. The real use of history, or, in other 
words, a review of the past, is not barren curiosity, but that the 
tale should be so told as to enable us to judge justly, and so to 
shape better our own course. In accord with this theory, it is 
impossible to judge of Sir Thomas Pope upon other basis than 
this, that he began humbly and had to achieve his own fortune, 
that he held many public appointments connected with the distri- 
bution of extensive confiscated property, and that he died enor- 
mously rich — the owner of thirty-five manors in different counties, 
and much beside. The inference is clear — he died with unclean 
hands ; but, after the manner of the time, he, like Fastolf, essayed 
to make amends, when it was impossible for him to enjoy it longer, 
by establishing a noble and useful foundation. Very many, no 
doubt, of the colleges have, like this one of Sir Thomas Pope's, 
been founded, directly or indirectly, in obedience to priestly 
influence — I acknowledge very often for good, or as sops to the 
conscience. 
There is no doubt One who overrules evil for good. 

KENT STREET (MAP, 61). 
The very name has come to suggest low and degrading associa- 
tions, but for some hundreds of years the street was part of the 
highway from London to Canterbury, which meant, among other 
matters, the satisfying that insatiable gallows-tree at St. Thomas a 
Watering,' the travel of scores of thousands of people on pilgrim- 
age, or through Kent to the Continent. Chaucer, mentally at 
least, took his pilgrims this way. Pilgrimages were always going 
on. Hanging was always going on too. Through Kent Street 
the condemned, conducted along in carts or on hurdles to the place 
of execution at St. Thomas a Watering, was no uncommon sight. 

5 It was at the boundary stream, immediately east of the Green Man, Old 
Kent Road. 

X 



306 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

John Paston^ says of one of the pilgrimages, 147 1, "as for tidings, 
the King and Queen and much other people are ridden and gone to 
Canterbury ; never so much people seen in pilgrimage heretofore 
at once, as men say." New Kent Road and Great Dover Street 
came long afterwards; the way then was through Kent Street. 
True, some people might perhaps desire, in passing, to visit the 
monastery of Bermondsey, the saint there could do something; 
albeit, "St. Saviour" was not so noted or so fashionable as St. 
Thomas ; in this case the way would be by Bermondsey Street or 
Long Lane,'' — both known by these names before the time of our 
map — and so through the Grange Road to St. Thomas a Watering, 
and thence to Kent. 

" Kent Street ' is so called as being seated on the road out of 
Kent into Southwark, very long, ill built, and chiefly inhabited by 
broom-men and mumpers. Divers large yards are here, wherein 
are large stocks of birch and heath, and some only of broom 
staves, which the master broom-men dispose of to those who 
make brooms." The broom-men are noticed in the State Papers 
of 1599, and such the hold of customary residence, broom-men 
were there in 17 19, and, with variations in the shape of brushes, 
are there still. A jolly company, girls and apprentices, in 17 19, 
meet the Wapping seamen, the Southwark broom-men, and, birds 
of a feather, the inhabitants of the bankside, to see something 
improving. It is the Easter holidays, and they have arranged to 
see Westminster Abbey, and look over the monuments there. 
The broom-man is recorded in a very old song,* — 

" He was old, and he lived in a wood, 
And his trade it was making of broom : 
And he had a naughty boy Jack to his son, 
And he lay in bed till 'twas noon." 

' Knight's ed., vol. ii. p. 65. 

^ In a map, circa 1740, King's Library, B.M., xxvii., 48. 2, to use a modern 
and facetious mode of direction, the way after leaving the abbey would be by the 
Cock and Rummer and Bull and Butcher, both houses of refreshment in the way 
to St. Thomas a Watering. 

' Strype's Stow, b. iv. p. 31, 

* Durfey's ' Pills to Purge Melancholy,' v. 6. 



BIRCH AND BROOM TRADE ; KENT STREET. 307 

His mother, so the story goes, prevailed on Jack to alter his ways, 
and go out and cut broom, green broom, — 

" So he fell to the cutting of broom.'' 

He had not far to go for it, as will be seen presently. Once in this 
better way, it was easy to sell his brooms after they were made. 
So — 

"When Jack he came to a Gentleman's house, 

In which was abundance of rooms, 

He stood at the door, and began for to roar, 

C lying ' Maids, will you buy any brooms, green brooms ? ' 

Crying ' Maids, will you buy any brooms ? ' " 

And this story of his living in a wood was not merely a song ; it 
was as near as might be the actual fact. Kent Street was to some 
extent literally in a wood. Later on, 163 1, 1 quote now the grave 
chronicles of the nation,' " Saye's Court Wood, near to Kent 
Street, Southwark, is replenished with multitudes of idle people, 
who fetch and carry away the wood at pleasure, so that there is 
no timber, and the underwood is so great a receptacle for thieves, 
that passengers can scarce pass that way." That this was a 
troublesome neighbourhood was no new complaint. Some atten- 
tion had been given a year or two before to the number of public- 
houses here ; a fifth of the licences were taken away, twenty-one 
on the Newington side of Kent Street; in the whole district 
about 300 vagrants had been punished and passed on within three 
months. Kent Street was the general depot for the supply, not 
only of broom, but of the arior sapieniice, an elegant euphemism 
for the birch ; the schools generally looked to Kent Street for a 
supply of this persuader. The rules of St. Saviour's Grammar 
School,' possibly a sample of many, will show how this birch trade 
was kept up. The rule of coercion and fear, instead of persuasion 
and kind regard, was, as we have seen, the rule in religion, in 
education, and, for the most part, in everything. As to the schools 
and the treatment of the young, Solomon has much to answer for. 
To say that clever men push through the process is only to say, 
happily, that nature is stronger than man, and that the power to 
spoil is limited. 

5 Rolls Papers (Dom.), 1631. 

« Wilkinson, 'Londina,' and MS. of rules p.m. ; see "Grammar Schools." 

X 2 



308 OLD SOUTI-nVARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

The Commissioners, in 1566, did not overlook Kent Street— an 
act was passed for paving ; and in 1640, one instance among more, 
a presentment was made of a ditch or sewer along, the street, 
which drained alike divers tenements in St. George's parish and in 
Newington— the north side in St. George's parish, the south in 
that of Newington ; it was ordered that the ditches into which they 
all drained (they were open ditches) were to be cast and maintained, 
and each occupier was to pay a rateable share. In my early time 
there were "ditch-casters," so called; and I have seen them at 
their work, casting; that is, emptying the ditches— an extinct 
trade now, so far as London is concerned. In a will, 1635, one 
Humphrey Williams leaves some valuable property in Kent 
Street, bounded by the ditch, or common sewer, known as the 
"Monk's Ditch," it maybe supposed of the old tonnexion with 
the monks of Bermondsey, who were the lords of this liberty/ A 
very strange Kent Street story turns up in 1664.= It would now 
scarcely adorn the corner of the lowest paper, then it was the 
subject of a broadsheet cried about the streets, and was probably 
believed ; this kind of thing has not so very long gone out. Our 
narrative is " to the tune of summer-time," as they commonly 
drawled it out in the streets, no doubt ; it was printed on London 
Bridge. This broadsheet is a warning to all such as desire to 
sleep on the grass. Mary Dudson is servant to Mr. Phillips, a 
gardener in Kent Street, — she was found dead asleep in the 
garden, and no ordinary noise could awake her. After a long 
sickness, on August 14th, she vomited up fourteen young adders, 
and one old one,' about fourteen inches in length ; the maid is yet 
living, the writer says, who remarks that the like hath not been 
known in the age. It might be absurd to quote^this, but the 
ballad and broadside literature of the times is full of stories, 
horrible and marvellous, and they are generally told very circum- 
stantially, much as Defoe himself might have written them. Pepys 
gives us an interesting scene of the plague time. He and Captain 
Cocke, known to those who read the ' Diary,' goe together through 

' ' Reports of Charities, 'vol. xi v, p. 560. 
* 'Handbook to Popular Literature,' W. Carew Hazlitt, 1867. 
' Probably the case had a real foundation as one of woims, which are some- 
times very large and are vomited from the stomach. 



ST. GEORGE'S BAR, KENT STREET. 309 

Kent Street — ^just now very sad throug-h the plague ; people sitting-, 
sick, with plasters about them, in the streets begging. Evelyn, 
about the same time, tells us of one Burton, a broom-man, and his 
wife, who sold kitchen stuff in Kent Street; the broom-man 
became rich, and achieved dignity as a Sheriff of Surrey: 

At the end of Kent Street was a bar — Southwark, or St. 
George's Bar.* The names, Smithfield Bar, Holborn Bars, Temple 
Bar, will show the meaning. In the two former and this of Kent 
Street it implied nothing more than posts and a chain, indicating a 
boundary. In 3 Edward III. is a record of one Burford dying 
seised of ten cottages at "Southwark Bar"; in 1460 the Duke of 
Buckingham died possessed of an inn and seven cottages near 
"St. George's Bar"; so that Buckenham Square, the name given 
to some late erections here, is more appropriate than perhaps was 
known to those who gave the name. Kent Street has not been 
monopolized altogether by broom-men and mumpers. It has been 
the scene of splendid cavalcades and processions, as must, of 
course, be supposed of the main way to Kent and the Continent. 
In 1522 the Emperor Charles V., with great state, accompanied 
our Henry VIII. into London, acting their diplomatic play, as it 
were, before the eyes of the people. About a mile from "St. 
George's Bar " was a tent of cloth of gold put up, in which the 
royal folk reposed while the heralds marshalled the procession. 

At the end of Kent Street, by the Bull Inn, containing about an 
acre — Buckenham Square now covers a part of it — is a long strip 
of ground, formerly known as the Toll Acre. This is incidentally 
noticed in the ' Decrees ' ^ in connexion with the great fire in 
Southwark, 1676. The Duke's Acre in St. George's Fields and this 
Toll Acre by the bridge in Kent Street had been demised by Lord 
Abergavenny to Thomas Knight. George Neville, Lord " Burge- 
venny," was Buckingham's son-in-law, and was, in 1521, impli- 
cated in his treason. This fact explains the early possession of 
the land demised to Knight. In 1387 the brethren of Bermondsey 
paid a quit rent to the City for ground hereabout : the document is 
worth quoting.^ n Rich. II., 1387. "To all the faithful in Christ. 

' Comer, Notes and Queries, July, 1862. 
2 Town Clerk's Office, Guildhall. 
^ Riley, 'Memorials,' p. 498-9. 



310 



OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 



Nicholas Extone Mayor, the Aldermen and other citizens of the 
City of London, greeting in the Lord." The Mayor notes that 
" he has received from Brother Henry Colyngbourne, Prior of the 
house of St. Mary in Southwark, and others the religious men 
there, 13' d^ yearly, due for a garden formerly belonging to 
W" de Exmuthe, in the parish of St. George, without the bar of 
Suthwerk, near to the Kings highway called Kent strete." The 
Barre of Suthwerk is noted so early as 1 322-1 363.'' 

In the time of Edward IIL the Earl of Warren and Surrey had 
a third of the tolls, and Mr. Corner thinks it probable that tolls 
were collected here, much as the octroi is now in some Continental 
towns. The toll-place, removed in my own time, was probably 
on, or close to, the spot where the ancient " bar " was. It is also 
probable, considering the proximity, that this toll was connected 
with the very handsome bridge that was here." 

The bridge, says Mr. Corner, was well known to the sewer 
people as Lock's Bridge, or the Lock Bridge ; it had been covered 
up for many years, the sewer being built up close to each side of 
it on arched brickwork, and so with the bridge covering the stream. 
A drawing of it was taken by the late Mr. Newman, architect.' 




* Riley. 

* A veiy clear picture of it, Journal Arclucolog. Association, vol. iii. 

* Who kindly lent it to me for the purpose of copying ; the woodcut above 
represents the original drawing of the Lock, or Loke Bridge. 



THE SITE OF THE LOCK HOSPITAL. 



311 



It consists of a pointed arch of stone with six ribs, similar to the 
oldest part of the old London Bridge and to those of Bow and 
Eltham. There are, however, no mouldings to the bridge; it was 
mere'y chamfered at the edges. Its date may be about the 
mid -lie of the fifteenth century. It carried the Old Kent Road 
over the streams, which, here in low ground, flowed from 
Newington towards Bermondsey, and formed, as they do now, the 
boundary between the parishes. The dimensions of the bridge 
are : width, 20 feet ; span of arch, 9 feet. 

In Rocque's Map of London, 1746, the stream is laid down, 
forming a large pool at the Bull, passing under Kent Street, and 
then running eastward, to the Bermondsey New Road, which now 
is, but was not then, made; both sides of the Kent Road are 
shown lined with hedge-rows. 




This copy is taken from Rocque's Map, 1746, Guildhall Library, 
and represents the actual site of the Lock Hospital and the imme- 
diate locality before the late great changes began. The stream 
passes toward the Thames, across the highway, between the Lock 
and the Bull Inn, and here it was covered by the Lock Bridge. 



312 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

East of the one-mile stone. the highway is the Old Kent Road, 
west of it, the way to St. George's Church, through Kent Street. 

The bridge was probably manorial, erected by the monks of 
Bermondsey, who were lords of the part of Southwark known as 
the Great Liberty Manor ; the ancient relic was not injured by the 
new works, but was necessarily covered up again. 

Before quitting the subject, I note in a sewer presentment,' 1640, 
this order : ''The Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of the City of 
London are to make up and amend the bridge called the Lock 
Bridge at the south end of Kent Street, also the bank of the 
sewar, east side of the way as far as their rules extend." That 
would be as far as St. Thomas a Watering.' The name Lock 
probably comes from loque, rags or fragments applied to sores ; or it 
may be from Loc, Loke — Saxon, to shut up or confine. The word 
applied to hospitals has come to mean places for lepers, and later 
on for other loathsome diseases. Bermondsey Abbey itself was a 
place of some resort in sickness, as might be expected, when the 
monks were in the main the doctors of their day ; and their places 
were the hospitals and infirmaries to which people came, either 
as in or out-patients, for relief and cure. If physical skill was 
wanting, faith and imagination and the influence of a shrine or 
healing water were spiritually invoked, and no doubt very great 
good was done. 

The Loke Hospital, Le Loke, a lazar house situate in Kent 
Street, Tanner" thinks is the same as that which, in the time of 
Edward IL, and perhaps before, was a place for lepers. It was 
outside the borough, and dedicated to the appropriate saint St. 
Leonard, the saint of captives. This hospital was dedicated to 
the blessed Mary and St. Leonard. Such dedication did not, 
however, save it from penury and trouble.^ In the 14 Edward II., 
1321, it is recited that the master and brethren of the Hospital of 
the blessed Mary and of St. Leonard, for lepers, without South- 

' MS., Guildhall Library. 

" Where their boundaiy stone is now. 

" 'Notitia Monastica.' 

' Wilkinson, ' Londina Illustrata,' has a picture of this lazar house, and an 
account of this and other houses of the .kind. A representation of the interior 
arrangements is in the King's Library, B.M. xxvii., Maps and Plans. 



LEPERS AND LEPER HOSPITALS. 313 

wark, had not wherewith to support themselves, and protection 
ag-ainst molestation was given for two years, the King beseeching 
his loving subjects piously and mercifully to aid them. 

In 1 346 a royal mandate was issued, that all who have blemish 
are to quit London and the suburbs, to betake themselves to the 
country, and to seek their victuals through such sound persons as 
ipight be found to attend them. Any person harbouring a leper 
after this notice was to forfeit house and buildings.^ In 1372 a 
baker so afflicted is ordered away on pain of pillory. In 1375 
Wm. Cook, the foreman at Le Loke, is sworn not to bring in, or 
to know of lepers being brought into the City. The leprosy did 
not confine itself to the poor; there were one time or another 
hospitals for people of condition. The youngest son of the Earl 
of Leceister, temp. Richard II., himself, I believe, a leper, founded 
an hospital near Leicester, and dedicated it to St. Leonard. 

The Angevin kings and their families were said to be troubled. 
Henry III. (12 16- 1 272), Henry IV. (1399-1413) were, it is said, 
afflicted with leprosy. The Mayor of Exeter, 1454, was a leper, 
1412, the King, Henry IV., was "at a stone house" somewhere in 
Bermondsey, "to be cured of a leprosie," where Lambarde,^ 
who is the authority, does not say, but in the neighbourhood of 
the Lock ; and the monks of Bermondsey are, it appears, known in 
connexion with the disease, so that the King, Henry IV., came 
here to be cured. It is so stated because the King signed some 
charters while he was upon this errand in Bermondsey. The 
year after this he died. 1437, John Pope' gave to the governors 
of the house of the poor Leprous, called Le Lokes, 6* 8* annual 
rent for ever. Gower, in his will, left ten shillings to the houses of 
the lepers in the suburbs, " so that they may pray for me." In 
I S92, very troublesome times, when places were narrowly searched 
for traitors and schismatics, protection was formally given for the 
" Lock poor-house in Kent Street." 

The disease itself, now nearly extinct, was of dreadful character 
and consequences, and it extensively prevailed before 120O; there 
were probably eighty or ninety early hospitals, or Leproseries, in 

2 Riley, 'Mem. Lond.' 

' Cited in Manning and Bray, vol. i. 

' Stow, 1720, b. iv. p. 20. 



314 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

this country : 1 1 1 are named in the ' Monasticon,' and of these 
seven were in London and the vicinity ; often, like, as I believe, 
this one in Kent Street was, they were under the care and control 
of the neighbouring priories and abbeys, and Knights called of St. 
Lazarus are said to have devoted themselves to the service of 
watching over the lepers. Those suspected of the disease were 
under surveillance, and, if disobedient, followed. In i486, te??ip. 
Ed. IV., a womanin Essex, suspected, would not seclude herself ; a 
warrant was issued to three physicians to "view and examine 
her diligently," which they did, and reported that she was not a 
leper. Had they found that she was, they were to remove her 
decently to a secluded place." 

An old author says of this and other hereditary diseases — The 
he who had infirmity by heritage, &c., " Mos erat apud majores 
virum exsecare cui ingenita asset lues, /e sanguis vitiosus latius ')% 
diffunderetur." Lex sane prseclara nee nbstris temporibus inoppor- 
tuna, ni duo essent sexus, quorum uterque hujusmodi morbis sit ^ 
obnoxius. 

The leper was to sit by the gate at the outskirts : in one notice 
of the thirteenth century he is to go, within fifteen days, to some 
outplace or fields, to be shut out from intercourse with his kind ; 
sometimes he was pilloried, or worse, if found after notice still 
mixing with others ; at religious services he might listen outside, 
and catch the stray sounds, or keep to the little chapel provided 
for him and the like. Lepers were mostly poor and in want, but 
only one might be appointed to sit at the door or at the gate and 
beg for his fellow-sufferers. Did he go about, say, like the man 
who, in stentorian voice, would ask in my time outside the Metho- 
dist Chapel, Long Lane, " Good Christians, pity the poor blind ! " 
he, the leper, must go "with cop and clapper, like ane lazarous," 
that is, with rattle, or clapper, to warn the people that a leper was 
at hand, so that the alms might be bestowed free of contact and 
with safety. In their hospitals they were not too tender over the 
inmates, grown people, if refractory, being punished with the 
birch, itiodo scholarum ; and lepers were to have a peculiar dress. 
Of course there were leprous cases slight or severe. The Testa- 

'• Rymer, ed. 1710, vol. xi. p. 365. 



LEPROSY A PREVENTABLE DISEASE. 315 

ment of Cressid, by Henrysone, schoolmaster of Dunfermline, 1 593," 
tells of the severely afflicted leper, in obscure and disgusting 
language, which I care not to make plainer : — 

"Thy ciystall ene minglet with blude I mak, 
Thy voice sa cleir, unpleasand, hoir and hace, 
Thy histie lyre ouirspread with spottis blak, 
And himpis haw appeirand in thy face ; 
Quhair thow cummis, ilk man sail fle the place ; 
Thus sail thow go begging fra hous to hous, 
With cop and clapper like ane Lazarous ." 

Even now' leprosy in India, as in other Eastern countries, is a 
kind of living death. Lepers are excluded from society, and can 
get no employment ; and they have often given themselves up of 
their own accord to be buried alive, the motive being simply a 
desire to be relieved from physical suffering and from their 
dreadful state. Here and there in India are now leper villages, 
rows of cottages under trees, devoted to their use. This is as 
nearly as possible the Lock, outside the bars of Kent Street, over 
again.' 

The modern " Lock " is for another disease," and has, indeed, 
been so used for a long period. In a late report to the English 
College of Physicians there is some diversity of opinion as to the 
causes of leprosy ; some of the professional reporters observed 
leprous cases the offspring of parents equivocally diseased. The 
general opinion, however, is that such a condition predisposes 
only, and that the real causes of leprosy then and now were 
miasms and low or degraded living, and that this, like some other 
diseases, has deserted Britain steadily as those conditions have 
improved.^ This opinion does not, however, explain it all, and 
probably in those earlier times many differing forms of loathsome 
disease externally manifested were known as leprosy. Although 

* ' Bannatyne Club Papers,' cited by Simpson, afterwards Sir James Simpson. 
Here I would acknowledge my obligations to this exhaustive paper, "Lepers 
and Leper Hospitals,'' Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, 1841. 

' Monier Williams, Athenaum, Aug. 4, 1877. 

" In Rocque's map (see page 311) it looks like a little colony, set apart. 

9 Lues. 

' I am indebted for this opinion to a letter I received from Mr. Erasmus 
Wilson. 



3l6 OLD SOUTHWARK AND ITS PEOPLE. 

no one acquainted with modern research would confound the 
diseases for which the Lock Hospitals are now used with those for 
which the leproseries were founded, yet among the number of the 
diseases of the middle ages comprised under this name there were 
some with symptoms which inevitably suggest a vicious origin. 
Compare the peculiar nasal roupy cry, the sallow skin, sore eyes, 
disgusting blotches, and cracking lips of the infants so often seen 
now, especially in parish poor law practice, with the symptoms 
described by the early surgeons, Chauliac, John of Gaddesden, and 
Glanville." The last, a surgeon of the fourteenth century, tells of 
the infected, how they are " unclene, spotyd, glemy, and guythery, 
the nostrils ben stopyl, the wasen of the voys is rough, the voys 
horse and the here falls." No surgeon who attends in the lower 
districts, among the poor, but will recognize at once the likeness of 
this description to the pitiable cases so frequently seen among the 
children of the poor and abandoned. I may fitly close this account 
v^fith a most touching passage and picture of an unfortunate leper 
• of Limburg, in 1480, the last words which Heine, whose writings 
the Times was reviewing, ever wrote for publication ■? — 

"In the year 1480, says the Limburg Chronicle, everybody was 
piping and singing lays more lovely and delightful than any which 
had ever yet been known in German lands, and all people, young 
and old, the women especially, went quite mad about them, so that 
their melody was heard from morning to night. Only, the Chronicle 
adds, the author of these songs was a young clerk, afflicted with 
leprosy, who lived alone in a desolate place hidden from all the 
world. You doubtless know, dear reader, what a fearful malady 
this leprosy was in the Middle Ages, and how the poor wretches 
who fell under this incurable sickness were banished from all 
society and allowed to come near no human being. Like livino- 
corpses, they wandered forth, closely wrapped from head to foot, 
their hood drawn over their face, and carrying in their hand a 
rattle, called the Lazarus rattle, with which they gave notice of 
their approach that every one might get betimes out of their way. 
This poor clerk, then, whose fame as a poet and singer the Limhurg 

' Copland, 'Med. Diet.,' vol. ii. p. 708. 
' June 29111, 1876, p. 5. 



THE LEPER. 



317 



Chronicle extols, was just such a leper, and he sate desolate in the 
dreary waste of his misery, while all Germany, joyous and tuneful, 

sang and piped his lays Ofttimes in my sombre visions of 

the night I think I see before me the poor clerk of the Limhurg 
Chrotiicle, my brother in Apollo, and his sad suffering eyes stare 
strangely at me from under his hood ; but at the same moment he 
seems to vanish, and dying away in the distance, like the echo of a 
dream, I hear the jarring creak of the Lazarus rattle." No doubt 
there is much of Heine's poetry in this, but it is not the less a 
living picture, as it were, of actual scenes constantly before the 
people of the middle ages. 




The End. 



ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 



Roman Remains in Soiithwark.— A map made by Mr. George Gwilt, in 
which are noted, with remarks, the exact spots in Soutliwark where such remains 
have been found, has this last week come to my hand. Thinking it might be a 
valuable addition to my book, I am glad to append it. It is inscribed on the 
map that it had been some time in the possession of Mr. George Corner. It has, 
therefore, the authority of the two best local antiquarians Southwark has ever 
had. The following words are in Mr. Gwilt's hand: — "A map of part of 
Southwark, showing the position of many Roman antiquities - which have been 
discovered within the last 33 years, but more particularly those in December 
last and in January of the present year, laid down and drawn by G. Gwilt, 
May 25, 1S19." The words on the map enclosed here by inverted commas are 
also his. 

On the site of Barclay's Brewery, in the eastern angle formed by Deadman's 
Place and Maid Lane, not far from the probable site of the Globe Playhouse, and 
close to the steam-engine well of the Breweiy : ' ' Highly glazed brown Roman 
vase, found here with coins, 1786." 

Winchester House : "At the back of Winchester House, in the fields called 
Southwark Park, Roman coins and a mosaic pavement, anno 1658." 

South of St. Saviour's Church : " 18 July, 1820, 7 or 8 feet mosaic, with 
figured GuiUoche, &c. — much left still." 

West of Mill Lane, by Battle-bridge Stairs : "April, 1819, Roman brass tags 
and pins, also many leather soles of shoes or sandals. 

St. Thomas's Street, in the south angle formed by High Street and St. 
Thomas's Street; " Tesselated pavement, July 26, 1819, depth 10 feet, Roman 
tiles." 

South of Cure's College, and on its actual site : "February 22, 1820, red 
stucco, also stuccoed floor ; about same time silver coin Alexander Severus. " 

Deadman's Place, close to the site of the chapel formerly there : " Hypocaust 
flues marked 'Px Tx,' 1806." 

South of the then No. 41, Union Street : " Roman sepulchral antiquities first 
observed upon this spot in May, 1814." 

East of High Street, between King Street and the Town Hall : "Many 
Roman lamps (30 or 40) and other antiquities, also human skull, &c. Samian 
Tazza, double handle, December, 1818 — ^January, 1819 ; also 7 lamps, and an 
um, July, 1820." 

Further east : " Highly glazed deep brown sepulchral Diota " (a drinking pot 
with two ears) " near the spot, November or December, 1818." 

Still further east. Meeting-house Walk or Crosby Row : ' ' Some uncertainty 
whether the cemetery extends further or so far as this cross +" (a -j- marked on the 
map). 

South of this cross: "Shoes, sandals, Roman potteiy, &c., &c., July 31, 

1819." 

Opposite the then No. 200, High Street, and east of the street: "Roman 
cemetery thought to commence near this spot ; many bones, stiles, and shears 
found near No. 200, 1818." 

"Nothing observed hitherto of a sepulchral nature on the west side of Red 
Cross Street." 

Page 126 : I note from ' Archasologia, ' vol. xxix., elaborate remains of a 
Roman dwelling, with coins below, on the site of the wings of St. Thomas's 
Hospital. Further, in ' Archsologia,' vol. xxvi,, is a paper by Mr. Kempe 

Y 



320 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

upon sepulchral remains found in Deveril Street, by the New Keijt Road, close 
to the boundai-y there of St. George's parish. He says, — "Almost eveiy excava- 
tion upon this spot has brought to light sepulchral urns and bottles of earthen- 
ware, fragments of vessels of the same substance very imperfectly baked, small 
glass phials, dissimilar to those called lacrymatories, but I conceive genuine tear 
bottles. " I have myself a glass ' ' tear bottle " of remarkably rude make, and 
iridescent, fomierly in the possession of Mr. Gwilt, which was marked in his 
handwriting as found on the spot near where the " Diota " was found in 1818. 

Pp. 2, note 4, and 64. Falstaffe in the fac-simile editions of the folio 1623. 
See Staunton's, and the diminished fac-simile edition with Mr. Halliwell's intro- 
duction. The Falstaffe of ' Heniy IV. , ' and of the first part 'Henry VI.,' are 
spelt alike. Collier says, "Fastolfe misspelt Falstaffe in the old copies" ; Dyce 
says of the folio that "throughout the play Fastolfe is corrupted to Falstaffe"; 
Malone says, " I have no doubt it was the exaggerated representation of Sir John 
Fastolfe's cowardice that induced Shakespeare to give the name of Falstaffe to his 
knight." " It was Theobald who first altered the Falstaffe of I ' Henry VI.' into 
Fastolfe." Others of the highest authority think there is not the least connexion 
between the real Fastolf and the Shakespearean character. I submit, with 
deference to the high authorities, that there may have been in the mind of 
Shakespeare some connexion between the two, and whether so or no I believe in 
the fitness and moral justice of the adoption in the after play. 
P. 16. For Vischer read Visscher. 
P. 81. For expect read suspect. 

P. 192. Second line, third paragraph, "having married an Overman" is an 
error ; Alice Shaw Overman was born Ovennan — she was the daughter of William 
Overman. See Manning and Bray's 'Surrey,' vol. iii. p. 567. 

P. 200. The word ' ' Clink " was introduced by me into the illustration upon 
the authority of a MS. Sewer Presentment, 1640, now in the Guildhall Library. 

P. 210 ei seq. Waynflete or Waynfleet ; possibly it would have been better in 
one form, Waynflete. 

P. 238. Olaf, not Ethelred, is the "soldier of fortune." 

P. 245. Curzon should be Curson. This man is one more instance of a com- 
missioner in high office at the dissolution purchasing largely of properties forfeited 
by the religious foundations in Southwark, and which it was in his office to 
administer on behalf of the state. 

P. 252. For Fastall Place read FastoU Place. 

Pp. 258 and 307. The birched schoolboy (about 1500 A.D. from the Babees 
Book, by Mr. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1868) is made to say : 

"I wold ffayn be a clarke but 

the byrchyn twyggis be so sharpe 
hit maketh me have a faynt harte. " 
Somehow he is late at school, and excuses himself because "his mother bade him 
milk the dukkis," whereupon, as might have been expected, 

"my master pepered my with well good spede, 

he wold not leve it till it did blede." 
There are more verses of the same sort, but these suffice to show how the arbor 
sapiential was applied. 

P. 285. There is also a good view of Bermondsey Church in 1802, by Buclder, 
in the King's Library, B. M. xxvii. 




xxvii. 48, 2. 

P. 312. In the same book (King's Library) just quoted is a plan of the S.E. 
elevation and of the interior of St. Bartholomew's Lock Hospital, Kent Street, 
St. George's, Southwark, surveyed 1745, by William Collier, Land Surveyor. 

P. 314. Womanin should be woman in. 



INDEX, 



Abbey of Bennondsey, see Bemiondsey 
Abbey 

Abbot of Bennondsey : ' ' the Lord of 
Bannsy," 299 ; great powers, 300, 
notes; the "Dekon" at the funeral 
of Edw. IV., 281 ; Parfew, the last, 300 

Acton, deputy in the Marshalsea, 98, 105; 
prosecution for cruelty to prisoners, 105 

Agas, map of London, 278 

Alderman, the first, in the Borough of 
Southwark, lo 

Ale, Southwark noted for, 36 ; and for 
its brewers, 35 

Alehouses, see Inns 

Andrewes, Bishop, 190, 221 ; a good 
man, a great scholar, and a wit, 
221 ; a father of Ritualism, 191, 192 ; 
almost ready for Rome, 191, 220, 221 

Annals of Bennondsey, an old record of 
the Abbey, 283, note 8 

Apprenticeship, 1570, 141 

Augustine, Abbot of St., 7 ; inn in 
Southwark, 267 ; afterwards Sentlegar, 
St. Leger House, 267 ; the Wharf, 267 

Austin, William, 188 ; piously eccentric, 
188, 189 ; friend of Edward Alleyn, 
190; his elaborate monument, 188- 
190; his ^uasi-poetical talent, 189; 
his admiration of women, 189 

Axe and Bottle Yard, now King Street, 
16 ; arms of London Bridge Gate 
here, 17 

Aylifife, Sir John, see Alderman 

Bakers, compelled to buy at the City 
stores, 269 ; complain of unfairness, 
269 ; punishments, 28, 269 

Bankside, the way to the, 200 

Battle, Abbot of, his inn, possessions, 
gardens, 272 ; and the Maze in South- 
wark, 273, 276 ; his bridge. Battle 
bridge, 272 

Battle bridge, Tooley Street, 273 ; Mills, 
277 

Bear or Beere Alley, 226 



Bear at Bridge-foot, see Inns 

Bear and bull baiting, see Bull-ring 

Beer, two or three pints a, day for 
patients, 1569-1574, 142 

Berghene : Petty Burgundy, 271, 272; 
meaning of the word, 272 ; Mr. 
Comer upon, 271 ; similar settle- 
ments, 271, 272 ; Robert Curson, a 
commissioner at the dissolution, pur- 
chases property here, 272 ; and Ad- 
ditions. 

Bermondsey : Cross, 277, 278 ; Street, 
278 ; stone bridge, 278 ; early state, 
279 ; inns, 279 ; parish records, 286 ; 
ministers and rectors, 287 ; Ryder, 
288 ; Elton, 288, 291, 292 ; the 
Whitakers, 288, 289, 291, 292 ; Mau- 
duit, 289 ; Paske, 289, 290 ; Parr, 
290 ; his sermon before Mathew Hale, 
290 ; Browning, 291 

Bennondsey Abbey, the annals, Har- 
leian MS., 283, note 8 ; Buckler's 
MSS., British Museum, 304 ; origin, 
as a priory, 299 ; the Abbot, see 
Abbot of Bermondsey ; a loose place 
before the dissolution, 230, 300 ; its 
surrender, 299, 300 ; becomes Sir 
Thomas Pope's, 292 ; pictures of, 303 ; 
site, 303 ; Parliaments held here, 281 ; 
noble and distinguished residents, 281, 
299, 301 ; a resort in sickness, 301 ; 
for pilgrims, 300 ; to the Rood of 
Grace, 303; the school, 28 1 ; Monks 
and Bishop of Winchester, 205 

Bermondsey churches, 282, 283 ; St. 
Saviour's, the conventual church, 283 ; 
St. Mary Magdalen, the parish church, 
at first a chapel, 283 ; ornaments and 
rich properties, sale of, 285, 286 ; re- 
pairs and reconstructions, 284, 285 ; a 
fatal panic in 1618, 284; pictures of, 
285. 

Bermondsey Manor House, on site of 
Abbey, 300; a noble edifice, 301 ; 



Y 2 



322 



INDEX. 



built by Sir Thomas Pope, 296, 300 ; 

who resided here, 296, 297 ; Sussex 

family (Lord Chamberlain's) lived here, 

301 ; remains, 301, 303, 304 ; Gerard 

as to wild flowers here, 302 ; Carter 

and Buckler on the remains, 301-305 

Bible ; Coverdale's, first complete printed 

in England, by Nycolson, in St. 

Thomas's Hospital, 130; its great 

rarity and value, 133 ; full title, 133 ; 

Tunstall and others destroyers of the 

book, 130 ; Coverdale's compromise, 

131 ; Cromwell's assistance, 131 

Blue Maid, or Blue-eyed Maid, see Inns 

Blue Mead, 10, note 

Boar's Head Court and Tirabs's family, 61 
Boar's Head, Southwark (Sir John Fas- 

tolf's), 246; see Inns 
Bonner, Bishop, vicissitudes, 90 ; cha- 
racter, 89, 217 ; in the Marshalsea, 
215; treatment there, 90, note; dies, 
89, 216 ; buried at St. George's by 
night, 89, 217 
Borough Market, see also Market : 
early notices, 23-26; 1616, 24; dues, 
25, 26 ; standings in the highway, 25 ; 
at the hospital gates, 25 ; children born 
under stalls, 24 ; on site of churchyard, 
25 ; granted to the City, 26 ; acts 
concerning, 26, 27 ; City resigns trust, 
27 ; see Punishments, Pie Powder 
Court 
Brandons, Southwark people, 96 ; Mar- 
shals of the prisons, 96 
Brandon, Sir Thomas, lOl ; Sir William, 
killed at Bosworth Field, loi ; Duke 
Charles, Marshal of Marshalsea and 
King's Comt, 96 ; great at jousts, 
loi ; illiterate, loi ; marries the 
French Queen, 10 1, 102 
Brandon, Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, 

see Willoughby 
Brewers and breweries, 35, 36 
Bridge House, storehouse for London 
Bridge, 268 ; a gamer for com, 268, 
269 ; a brewhouse, 268 ; the porter's 
and " sheuteman's " shelter, 270 ; land- 
ing stairs, 270; many pirates landed, 
270 
Bridge Ward Without, first notice of, 10 
Bridge, see London Bridge, many in 
Southwark, I, 2; stone, Waynflete's 
in Bermondsey, 279 ; Paris Garden, 
279; the Lock, 279, 310, 311 ; Battle- 
bridge, 273, 279 
Brownists, notes, 80 ; at St. George's, 
80 ; Taylor, the water poet, upon the, 



80, 81 ; riots of apprentices against 
the, 81 ; see Browne, Robert 

Browne, Robert, founder of the Brovniists, 
master at St. Olave's School, 256 

Brownes, from Montagues, 234, 235; 
Montague Peerage claim, 234 

Bull and bear baiting, see Bull-ring 

Bull Head, see Inns 

Bull-ring, St. Margaret's Hill, 30 ; exact 
siteof, 1542 (Map, 58) ; 1561, 31 ; usual 
in High streets, 30; recognized by 
Queen and priest, 31 ; bull and bear 
baiting, 30, 31 

Burcestre, Sir John, 274, note 9 ; pro- 
perty in Southwark, 276 

Burial-grounds : St. Olave's, 245 ; St. 
Saviour's, 198 

Burials, without a. coffin, in a sack, 144, 
note 9 ; St. Saviour's, with and with- 
out a coffin, 198 ; charges, 1613, 198 ; 
within the church, 199 ; a third of the 
people buried in ^ 1625, 224 ; St. 
Thomas's, charges and conditions, 
144, note 9 ; disagreement as to, 127 

Burning to death, 74, 115, 196, 197 

Cade in Southwark, 1450, 18, 19 ; his 
rebellion a political outbreak, 19; see 
Inns, White Hai-t ; outbreak ended iij 
St. Margaret's Church, 211 

Cage, 27, 28 ; a temporaiy prison or 
place of detention, 8 ; Long South- 
wark, 27 ; Little Burgundy, 27, 29 ; 
St. Olave's, 248, 249; St. Saviour's, 
249 

Chain gates, St. Saviour's, 196, 199 

Charitable and other public institutions, 
natural process of rise and decline, 

134, 135 

Charles V., the Emperor, in Southwark, 
32 ; asks grace for prisoners, 32 

Chaucer, Geoffrey or Geffrey, 32 ; and 
the Tabard, see Inns, Tabard ; birth, 
52 ; occupations, income and allow- 
ances, 53 ; member of Parliament and 
pay for same, 53 > his wife Philippa 
Roet, 53 ; an intense lover of nature, 
51, 52; a reformer, 54i note; dis- 
missed from his offices, 53 ; feels the 
pinch of poverty, 54 ; takes comfort 
and addresses his purse, 54 ; John of 
Gaunt, his patron and related by 
marriage, 53 ; Gower is his friend, 52 ; 
portrait in words, 52 ; pictorial, 52 
Chaucers in Southwark, 52 ; Richard, 

23 
Christopher, see Inns 
Chrysomes, 90, note 



INDEX. 



323 



Churchyard Alley, St. Olave's, 245 
Church, the old, tendency to absorb pro- 
perty, 247 ; spoil at dissolution passing 
to lay hands, 295 

Church Riots: St. Olave's and St. 
Saviour's, note, 81 ; St. George's, 80 

City, jurisdiction in Southwark, 3 ; peti- 
tion as to, 1325, 7; again 1377, 8; 
strengthened, 1462, 8, g ; powers, 
1462, 9 ; increasing, 1550, 9 ; disputes 
as to, 1663-4, II ; adverse decision of 
judges, II ; final decline of, 11 

City of London : liberal contributions to 
St. Thomas's Hospital, 156 ; liberality 
■worthy of praise, 135 ; should now 
conform to the times, 13S 

Clement, see Inns 

Clergy, in time of plague, 79 > immo- 
ralities of, Mr. AMiite's committee, 81 

Clink, the, 4 ; see Prisons 

Close or Cloisters, see Montague Close 

Cobhams, buried at St. Saviour's, 176 

Cocker, Edward, buried at St. George's, 
86 ; were Hawkins and he one person ? 
86, 87 ; Pepys's account of, 87 ; his 
arithmetic and dictionary, 87 

Compter or Counter Prison : Hooper and 
Rogers were confined here, 197 ; 
apparently farmed, 48 ; destroyed in 
fire of 1676, 48 ; not rebuilt, 48 

Conflicts in Southwark, see Wat Tyler, 
Cade, Wyatt, Rainsborough, &c. 

Conjurers, see Wizards 

Conqueror, the, destroys Southwark, 5 

Cooper, Bishop, versus Mai-prelate men, 
1 74 ; preaches at St. Saviour's, 220 

Copley family of the Maze, 274 ; pro- 
perty in Southwark, 276 

Comer, Mr. George, cited, 4, note 7 ; 7, 
note 3 ; 9, and on numerous other 
pages 

Coverdale, preaches at St. Olave's, 132 ; 
his Bible printed in Southwark, 130 ; 
see Bible 

Cromwell, Thomas, or Cr«mwell, 132 ; 
has property in Southwark, 132 ; 
leaves property to Beeston of St. 
Olave's, 132 ; greatly favours the pub- 
lication of the Bible, 130 

Cross, the Bermondsey, 277 

Cross or Crowned Keys, see Inns 

Crosses in the highways, 277, 278 ; sanc- 
tuaries, 277 ; stations for prayer, 277 ; 
guide posts, 277 

Crucifix Lane, 3 

Cruelty, in connexion with religion, 218 ; 
absurd, 262, note 7 ; common to all 



creeds, in different degrees, 236, 264, 
note 5 ; aggravated by enforced celi- 
bacy, 217, 230, note 7 ; in sports and 
punishments, 32, 124 ; exhibitions in 
public, 31, 32 

Cucking Stool, with illustrations, 200, 
201 

Cure, of St. Saviour's, 184 ; his alms- 
houses, 185 ; test for his almsiDcople, 

185 
Curfew Bells, 74 ; one at St. George's, 74 
Deadman's Place, 224 ; origin of name, 

225 ; burial-place, 224 ; probably a 

residence first, 226 ; the sewer, 2, 226 
Deaths at advanced ages, 286, 287, note 

4 ; Bermondsey, 286 ; St. George's, 

91 
Death emblems, 170, 181, 1S3, 186-189, 

294 
Debtors in Southwark prisons, 16, 53, 

104 

Dike, Dyck, I, 2, 223 ; see Swamp, Sewer 

Diseases in swampy localities, 2 

Dissolution of religious houses : effect on 

poor relief and education, 134, 135, 

253, note 6 ; state of society at, 134, 

135 ; state of religious houses, 134, 

135 ; spoils pass chiefly into lay hands. 

Ditch casters, 308 

Ditches, I, 2, 275 ; most of them after- 
wards sewers, 2, 3 ; Black Ditch, 3 ; 
Monk's Ditch, Bermondsey, 30S ; 
Tabard Ditch, S5 

Dog and Duck, see Inns 

Doggett the player at the Angel, St. 
George's, 96, note 

Dogs, mastiffs, for sport, 275 

Doles, 176, 177 ; one fatal at St. Mary 
Overy's, 177 

Domesday Book, summary as to South- 
wark, 5 

Ducking Stool, see Cucking Stool 

Edward VI., grant of Southwark to City, 
9, 10 

Elizabeth, Queen, the Pope's bull de- 
posing, 16, 74, note 5 ; her portrait 
in churches, 195, 196 ; removed from 
St. Saviour's, 196 

Emigrants and refugees, 262 

England the " asylum Christi, " a refuge 
for the persecuted, 265 ; greatly pro- 
fited by this act of charity, 265 

Executions, cruel and numerous, 75 ; 
conducted carelessly, 75 ! repeated 
after failure, 75 ', how and by whom 
performed, 75 ; "prest to death," 



324 



INDEX. 



90, and note 7 ; display of remains of 
the dead, at London Bridge Gate, 227 ; 
at Pepper Alley Gate, 227; see Burning 
to Death 

Falstaffe, Falstaff, Fastolfe, Fastolf, see 
Fastoir, Sir John ; not Sir John Old- 
castle, 45, 61, 62 ; see Inns, Boar's 
Head, White Hart, cScc. 

Fastolf, Sir John, of Fastoll Place, 
Stonie Lane, 60 ; character, greedy, 
63, 64 ; revengeful, 64 ; suborns 
judges, 64, 66 ; servants' testimony 
against, 64 ; pays his servants and 
retainers with promises, 64 ; an idea 
about that he is a boaster and a coward, 
64 ; popular opinion of him, 44, 63, 
64 ; the opinion of Cade and his 
people, 44, 45, 64, 65 ; enlightened 
popular opinion of him, 45, 65 ; tes- 
timony of thePastonLetters, 63 ; of Hall 
the chronicler, 63 ; Shakespeare pro- 
bably kneviT this, 45, 63 ; what, ac- 
cording to Shakespeare, the people 
thought, 63; "the old lad of the 
castle," 65 ; may have some connexion 
with the character of Falstaff, 45, 62 ; 
is a trader, 66 ; lends money on pro- 
perty, 64 ; traffics in wardships, 63, 
64 ; Scrope's testimony " sold like a 
beast," 63 ; absurd praise of, 62, note 
8 ; wliat Fuller says, 62, note 7 ; is 
very rich, 66 ; enormous possessions 
in Southwarli 60 ; including the 
Boar's Head, 59 I Bishop Waynflete 
his friend and executor, 60 ; quasi- 
founder, through Waynflete, of Mag- 
dalen College, Oxford, 60, 6l, note 5 ; 
fears for his soul's welfare, 65, 67 ; 
reputation, 65, and note 6 ; age and 
death, 66, 67 ; scramble for his pro- 
perty, 66, 67 

Fastolf Place, Stony Lane, 2, 60 ; a. 
princely house, 60, 280 ; receives 
noble guests, id. ; filled with soldiers 
in Cade's outbreak, 60 

Fastolfs, many in Soulhwark, 60, note 3 

Feriy from old time by St. Mary 
Overy's, 228 

Fillingham, J., a topographical collector, 
109, note 

Fires in Southwark, 17, 45-47, 156; tire 
decrees, and Act of IParliament, 1677, 
47, 236, note ; scandal as to origin, 45, 
46 ; broadsheet as to the tire of 1676, 
46, 48 ; on London Bridge, 1 7 

Flemish Refugees and Emigrants, 262, 
263 ; many in Southwark, 266 ; names 



of some, 266 ; England a ready refuge, 
265 ; introduced trades, 265, 266 ; of 
great benefit to this country, 262, 266 ; 
suffered in Wat Tyler's and other out- 
breaks, 18, 263, 264; weavers' trade 
regulations, 263, note 

Floods in Southwark, 248, note 8 

Flower de Luce, 273 

Forests of trees, i 

Forts, temp. Ch. I., in St. George's parish : 
Kent Street, 90 ; Blackman Street, 90 ; 
Dog and Duck, go ; death by fall of 
one of them, 90 

Fowler, last prior, St. Mary Oveiy, see 
Linsted 

Fox, Bishop of Winchester, 171, 211; 
liberal and unselfish, 211 ; poor, 211 ; 
portrait, 211 ; reports badly of South- 
wark morals, 211 ; supplanted by 
Wolsey, 211 ; see Fox's screen 

Fox's screen at St. Saviour's, 171, 172, 
211; concealed by wood and plaster, 
171 ; restored, 171 ; Carlos tells us all 
about it, 172 

Gangdays, "beating" the parish boun- 
daries, 121 

Gaol fever, 97, 98 

Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Win- 
chester, see Winchester House 

Gatehouse, prison of Old Southwark, 
the Gildable Manor, 8, 249 ; of West- 
minster in illustration, 250 

George, see Inns 

George the Martyr, St. : Rectory given 
to Bermondsey Priory, 1122, 69; gild 
of our Lady and St. George, 7°> 73 '> 
festival day, 73 ; forts time Charles I. , 

90 ; the present church built, 70 
George the Martyr, St., the old church 

of : picture of by Hogarth, 68 ; descrip- 
tion, 68, 70 ; first founded, 69 ; Roman 
stone in tower, 69 ; ancient font, 69 ; 
stained glass, 70 ; monuments and in- 
scriptions, 85, 86 ; heretics condemned 
here, 74 ! '^ sanctuary, 75 > ^ tumult 
in 1641, 80 ; congregations, 78 ; rec- 
tors, ministere, preachers, 77, 78, 79, 
81, 82, note 4 ; burials of noted 
people, 87-91; e.g., Bonner, 89; 
Cocker, 87 ; Rushworth, 88 ; Udall, 
92 ; registers, curious extracts, 90, 

91 ; deaths from plague, 79 ; irregidar 
, marriages, 83, 84 ; baptisms, 83, see 

Mint Marriages ; George Mould's 
marriage (Duke of Albemarle), 84; 
lay marriages according to the Direc- 
tory, 84, note 2 



INDEX. 



32s 



Gilds, Toulmin Smith on, 242, note ; 
several in Southwavk, 243 ; functions, 
duties, and customs, 242, 243 ; rules, 
73 ; proceedings and ceremonies, 243 ; 
processions, 120; plays performed, 
119; liigli moral tone of some, 120; 
suppression, 242 ; modern representa- 
tives of, 242 

Gild, St. George's, of our Lady and St. 
George, 7° ! triefs, yi, J2; gifts to, 
73 ; rules of a like gild, in illustration, 

73 

Gild, St. Margaret's, HI 

Gild, St. Olave's, 242 

Gild, St. Saviour's, 243 

Gildable Manor, the most ancient in 
Southwark, 7 ; boundaries of, 7, note 

Goat, see Inns 

Godwin, Earl, mansion in St. Olave's, 5 ; 
a Lord of Southwark, 5 

Goodchepe's Key, Tooley Street, 267 

Goodyere, 281, 282 ; burial of Henry at 
St. Olave's, 282 ; house in Bermondsey, 
279, 281 

Gower, 181, 182, 183 ; marriage, 182 ; 
at St. Mary Overy's, 182 ; lived in the 
Close, 182 ; burial and monument, 
182 ; bequests to Southwark churches, 
72, 183 ; and to the Lock, Kent Street, 

313 

Grammar Schools, 251, et seq.; effect of 
dissolution upon, 253, note 6 ; rules 
and regulations, 258, 261 ; punish- 
ments, 253, note 9 ; near churchyards, 
252 ; St. Olave's, 247, 253 ; St. 
Saviour's, 200, 257 ; founded 1562, 
257 ; founders, 257 ; schoolhouse, 257 ; 
destroyed by fire, 261 ; pictorial repre- 
sentations, 261 ; governors, 260 ; in- 
tended scholarships, 261 

Green Dragon, see Inns 

Greyhound, see Inns 

Health : local causes of sickness, 29, 
223, 227, 251 ; natural laws of God 
versus particular providence, 251 ; con- 
ditions disregarded, 297, 298 

Heresy, trials and persecution for, 74 ; 
Hooper and Rogers at St. Saviour's, 
196, 197 ; the scene, 197 ; at Win- 
chester House and in the Southwark 
churches, 216 

Hide, Abbot of : inn at the Tabard, 34, 
55 ; his chapel here, 55 ; rewarded at 
the dissolution, 56 

Hock, Hoke, or Hoc, a jTz/^m'-religious 
frolic, 118 ; money for the church, 117 ; 
days, women's and men's, 117 



Hogs, presented as nuisances, 2, 3 ; many 
kept in Southwark, 125 ; not to bo 
kept within forty feet of sewer, 2 
Hooper, Bishop, at St. Saviour's, 174 
Horse Head, Nag's Head, see Inns 
Hospital of St. Thomas, 125 ; first state, 
125, 126; at first for "religious" of 
St. Mary Overy, 126 ; the Almery at 
Bermondsey, 126 ; the place for the 
poor at St. Mary Overy's, 125 ; Bishop 
Peter unites the two, and founds St. 
Thomas's Hospital, 126 ; Roman occu- 
pation and remains on the site, 126 ; a 
sanctuary here, 129 ; refounded by 
Bishop Peter for religious men and 
\\'omen, 126 ; who have rights and 
privileges of market, &c., 127 ; visita- 
tion and rights of bishops, 127 ; King's 
right paramount, 127, 128 ; Plenry 
VIII. interferes corruptly, 127, 128 ; 
letters of Queen Elizabeth, Charles I. , 
Cromwell, and others as to presenta- 
tions, 128 ; dissolution and surrender, 
129, 130, 134; precincts, 130; a cele- 
brated printing press here, 130, see 
Bible ; state of, between dissolution 
and refounding, 130, 148 ; refounded 
for poor and sick, by Edward VI., 
Ridley, and the City, 130, 134-136 ; 
touching words of the King, 136 ; 
liberality of the mayor and citizens, 
135, 137, 156; confirmation by Parlia- 
ment, 139 ; variously named, 136, 
137 ; neighbourhood filthy, 154, 155 ; 
governed by a City committee, 137 ; 
how governed, 137, ct seq. ; old MSS., 
weekly minutes, 1569-1574, 138-146 ; 
Sloane, 150, note 4 ; interesting illus- 
trations from the MSS., 138-145 ; 
curious regulations as to filth, 155 ; 
fire, 47, note 3 ; whipping-post or cross, 
138, 143; punishments, 138, 143; 
income and expenditure, 1629, 147 ; 
charity-boxes and other sources of 
income, 140, et seq. ; stands in the 
courts and at the gates for sale of goods, 
140 ; food and drink, 142 ; patients, 
some paid for, 139 ; special arrange- 
ments as to, 140 ; licence for, to travel 
homewards, 141 ; number of, 1552, 
1554, 1647, 1667, &c., 147 ; diseases, 
old names, 156 ; morals cared for, 144 ; 
respect for the dead, 144 ; out-patients, 
1 50 ; wards and their names, 145, 155, 
156, 160; swetward, 145, 146; foul 
ward, 145, 146 ; cutting ward, 147 ; 
night wards, 146 ; midwifery, 146 ; 



326 



INDEX. 



governors of, qualifications, 139 ; 
weekly meetings, secret proceedings, 
149 ; {eastings, 129 ; corruption, 144, 
145 ; many governors remarkable men, 
151-154; officers and tlieir wages, 
147, 148, &c. ; curates, 138 ; physi- 
cian, 149 ; surgeons, 148 ; position of, 
148 ; some, of high class, 128, 149 ; 
apothecary, 149, 150; and his "stuff," 
150 ; school for teaching medicine, 
148 ; fire approaches the hospital, 46, 
47, note 3, 156 ; decay of the building, 
1694, 156 

Houses : common of timber, 280 ; stone, 
279, 280; with chimneys, 280; better 
inside than out, 280 ; horn windows, 
lattice, glass, 280 

Humble, Richard, monument, 185 ; 
"Like to the Damask Rose, " inscrip- 
tion, 186 ; a leading vestryman and an 
aldennan, 187 

Hunting in Southwark, i 

Inns, 33 ; town houses ot private or 
distinguished persons, 34, 55 ; many 
in Southwark, 33, 34 ; names of many 
in charter of Edward VI., 9, note 7 ; 
for travellers, 1617, 33; for carriers, 
35, 42 ; used for theatrical entertain- 
ments, 34, 35, 43 ; religious signs, 

41, 49 ; Taylor, the water poet, upon, 

42, 56, 57, 58 ; changing into tene- 
ments, 42 ; and into courts and alleys 
of the same name, 96, note 5 ; after- 
wards into warehouses, 43 ; stock of 
London inns, 1522, 42 ; fires among 
the Southwark inns, 45, 46 

Inns of Southwark : 

Anker or Anchor, 56 

Bear at Bridge-foot, 1319, 37 ; tokens, 
39 ; noted visitors, 39 ; parish feast- 
ing; 37) 39; pulled down, 1761, 40 

Bell at St. Thomas's, 57 

Blue Maid, Blue-Eyed Maid, 49 ; 
' Beggar's Opera ' here in Southwark 
Fair time, 49 

Boar's Head, Southwark, 48, 59 ; 
Sir John Fastolf's property, 59 ; 
promised to Henry Wyndesore, 59 ; 
a John Barlow here in 1614, 15, 
59 ; a token of, 1649, 59 

Boar's Head, Eastcheap, 59 

Bullhead, 40, 57 ! vestry notices of, 
41 ; churchyard, 41 

Cardinall's Hat, 57 

Christopher, 33, 41, 57 

Clement, 41 



Inns of Southwark (continued) : 

Crossed Keys, 49 ; arras of the Papacy, 
49 ; belonged to the Poynings, 49 

Dog and Duck, 226 

Dragon, 57 

Falcon, 57 

George, 34, 48 ; its bad sack, 48, 49 ; 
nearly burnt, 1670, 49 ; wholly 
burnt, 1676, 49 ; restored by land- 
lord, rent 50/. and a sugar loaf, 49 

Goat, 41 

Green Dragon, Foul Lane, 40 ; the 
inn of the Cobhams, 40 

Greyhound Inn Yard, now Union 
Street, 17 

Hart, 34 

Holy-water Sprinklers, 49 

Horse Head, Nag's Head, 49 

King's Head, 34, 41 ; present value of 
site, 42, note 7 ; in Horsey Downe, 57 

Lamb, 58 

Mermaid, 58 

Queen's Head, 33, 34 

Ram's Head, 40, 58 

Red Lattice or Lettuce, 36, note 2 

Salutation, 41 

Spur, 33, 49 

Tabard, 34, 48; called the Talbot, 
55. 5^ ; meaning of the name, 55, 
note 2 ; rent, 1539, 56 ; con- 
dition, 1598, 56 ; belonged to 
the Abbot of Hyde, 55 ; surren- 
dered at dissolution, 55 ; totally 
destroyed by fire, 1676, 56 ; see 
Chaucer ; Canterbury Pilgrimage, 
50 ; scene before starting, 5 1 ; pil- 
grims, 50, 51 

White Hart, 42, 57 ; the present inn 
modem, 43 ; the original, 1400, 43 ; 
Cade's headquarters, 43 ; people 
executed there, 43 ; Fastolf's ser- 
vant, 43, 44; partly burnt, 1669, 42 ; 
wholly burnt, 1676, 42 ; Dickens's 
picture, 43 

White Lion, 50 ; on the site of St. 
Thomas's Hospital, 50 ; near St. 
George's Church, 58 ; near Water- 
gate, St. Olave's, 58 

Windmill, 58 
Inventories, church : see Bermondsey, 

St. Olave's, St. Saviour's 
Jcssey, Henry, minister of St. George's, 

81 ; a learned man and of high re- 
pute, 81, 82 ; one of Cromwell's 

" triers," 81 ; a nonconformist, 81, 82 
Kent Street Bar, 309 ; property near, 

309; Duke of Buckingham's, 309, 



INDEX. 



327 



310; Bermondsey Priory, 309, 310; 
a place for toll, 310 ; the toll acre, 
309. 310 
Kent Street : the way to Kent, 305, 
309 ; St. Thomas a Watering, 305 ; 
close by a wood, i, 307 ; paving in 
1566, 308 ; ditches and sewers, 308, 

312 ; the Monk's ditch, 308 ; inhabi- 
tants and trades, 306 ; of low position, 
307 ; famous for the birch for schools, 
307 ; the plague here, 308, 309 ; a 
broadsheet wonder story, 308 ; Bar, 
see Kent Street Bar; Lock Hospital 
and Bridge, see Lock 

King's Bench or Queen's Bench Prison, 
96 ; a common gaol and an upper 
bench, 96 ; wretched and filthy state, 
1618, 96; pestilential, 97; over- 
crowded, 97 ; supply of beer, drink, 
&c., 98, 99 ; Litany in ribald verse, 
106, 107 

King's Head, see Inns 

Lady Fair (St. Margaret's Fair, South- 
wark Fair) appointed 1462, 9 

Lenthall, Sir John, Marshal of the 
King's Bench, 88 ; culpable and cruel 
in his office, 89 ; and the Brownists, 
81 ; the Lenthall family, 103 

Lepers : hospitals, leproseries, 313 ; 
many in England, 313, 314; pro- 
clamations and laws against, 313 ; 
separate, living in the outskirts, 314 ; 
to give notice of approach by clapper 
and rattle, 314, 315 ; operation to 
stay hereditary transmission, 314 ; 
manifest insufficiency of, 314;' treated 
with cruelty, 314; distinguished people, 

313 ; Henry IV. at Bermondsey for 
cure, 313 ; Heine's touching picture, 

317 
Leprosy : affected rich and poor, 313 ; 
chiefly poor, 313, 314; the disease, 
313, 314; preventable, 315; descrip- 
tions of, 315, 316 ; by old surgeons, 
316 ; origin, 315 ; in some cases con- 
nected with Lues, 315, 316 ; now in 
India and other countries, 315 
Levels, low, and inundations, 2 
Lewes, Abbot of, his house or inn, 6 
Liberties in Southwark, see Manor ; 
often changing, 5 ; of the Mayor, 3 ; 
boundary of, 5, 7, note ; King's, 4 ; 
Great Liberty Manor, 9 ; of the manor, 
4 ; Bishop of Winchester's, the Clink, 
4; Bermondsey, 5 
" Like to the Damask Rose," 186 
Lilbume, Lieutenant-Colonel, 223 ; lives 



at Winchester House, 223 ; in prison, 
223 

Linsted or Fowler, last prior of St. Mary 
Overy, 230 ; his house in the Close, 231 

Lock Bridge (Kent Street), now covered, 
forming part of sewer, 310; sketch of, 
310; description of, 311; manorial, 
built by monks of Bermondsey ( ?), 312 

Lock Hospital, Le Loke (Kent Street), 
early foundation for lepers, 312 ; dedi- 
cated to St. Leonard, 312; Wm. 
Cook foreman at Le Loke, 1375, 313 ; 
gift to, 313; these hospitals now used 
for other diseases, 315 ; patients sent 
from Thomas's Hospital to, 141 

I-ockyer, Lionel, empiric, 193 ; his 
pills, 193, 194; advertisement, 194; 
in the White Lion, 195 ; epitaph in 
St. Saviour's, 193 

London Bridge, 12; width of way, 13; 
a passage of arms in 1390, 13 ; part in 
St. Olave's parish, 12 ; extent of, 12, 
13 ; houses and shops, 12, 13 ; de- 
molished in 1758, 13; traders' tokens, 
13 ; Norden's map, 14, 16, 244 ; a 
healthy place, 14 ; fires upon, 17 ; 
water way dangerous, 14, 244 ; many 
people drowned, 244 ; rock-lock, 14, 
15 ; drawbridge, 13, 14 ; Bridge gate, 
14, 15; conflicts at, 14; Col. Rains- 
borough takes it, 22 ; known as 
Traitors' Gate, 14, 15 ; heads placed 
over, 14, 15, 16, 24 ; flags from the 
Armada displayed, 22 ; the three bridge 
gates, 16, 17; water-works, see in voce 

Long Southwark, 23 ; description of, 
illustrating Visscher, 24 

Lords of Southwark : Earl Godwin, S ; 
Odo, Bishop of Baieux, 5 ; Earl War- 
ren, 5, 6, 7 ; King always paramount, 
5 ; King and Earl Warren, 7 ! City 
and Earl Warren, 8 ; Earl of Arundel, 
1397) 8; King at dissolution, 9; Mayor 
and citizens, 9, 10, II 

Magdalen, the name, 282 and note 

Manors and Liberties : Abbot of 
Barmsey's, 5 ; Clink Liberty, Manor 
of Bishop of Winchester, 4 ; Great 
Liberty Manor, 9 ; King's Manor, 4 ; 
Liberty of the Mayor, the Gildable 
Manor approximately the old town of 
Southwark, 3, 7, note 3, 8 ; Manor of 
the Maze, 5, 273 ; Paris Garden Manor 
or Liberty, no; Manor of Southwark 
belonging to Archbishop of Canterbury, 
4, 5 ; Suffolk (Brandon's) liberty of 
he manor, 5 



328 



INDEX. 



Marbeck, writer of Concordance, 107, 
214; in the Marshalsea, 107, 214, 215 

Margaret's, St.: Hill, 29, no; view, 
1600, 122, 123 ; Compter prison, 125; 
Hall or Court House, 3, III ; in 1372, 
III; the Admiralty Court for crimes at 
sea, 123 ; Pepys here, 124 ; courts for 
recovery of debts, 123; of sewers, 124, 
125; destruction by fire, 1676, 125; 
later buildings as town halls, 125 ; 
the well, 29 ; near the churchyard, 29 ; 
the sink, 29 ; fair of, Southwark, or 
our Lady fair, 33 

Margaret, parish of St., Ill ; extended 
to Paris Garden, in; the stews here, 
III 

Margaret, church of St. -. early account, 
1 100 or 113s, III; at St. Mar- 
garet's Hill, no, III; parish church 
of a large parish, no; church and 
parish merged in St. Saviour's, no, 
121, 122 ; burial stone of Aleyn 
Ferthing, M.P., 1337, m; Gild of 
the Assumption here, in; duties of 
the, in, 112; old records at St. 
Saviour's, 112; description, 112; 
filthy surroundings, 112, 113; over- 
full churchyard, 113; in the highway, 
114; act to enlarge churchyard, 113, 
114; churchwardens, 113; one of 
them a Chaucer, 113; accounts, 116; 
rich vestments, books, &c., 115, 116; 
sources of income, 116, 117; rich 
gifts, 118, 119; outgoings, 117, 120; 
dedication day, 117; saints' days, 120, 
121; curious old customs, 117, 121 ; 
plays perfoi-med, 119; conference here 
-with Jack Cade, 114 ; a death tribunal 
held here, 115; Cade's outbreak ended 
here, 211 

Market, see Borough Market ; in church- 
yards, 23, 25 ; earnest penny and 
God's penny, 26 ; on Sundays, 25 ; 
forbidden, 25 

Markets and fairs, 281 ; held on Sun- 
days, 281 ; customs, 281 

Marshals of prisons, mostly brutal, 91, 
96, 100, 104 ; see Brandon, Reynell, 
Lenthall 

Marshalsea Prison, 98, 105 ; for Admi- 
ralty offences, 123; broken open, 1 38 1, 
18; "hell in epitome," 103-105; 
pleasurable side, 105, 106 ; first site 
and views of, 109 ; second site, 95 ; 
Southwark Fair and the, 1 10 

Mary the Queen and Philip at Suffolk 
Place, 21 ; procession to the bridge, 21 



Mary Tudor, the " French Queen," 276 ; 
her place in Southwark, 263, 276, 
note 4 ; marries the Duke of Suffolk, 
102, 276 ; intercedes for offenders, 263 

Maze, the, 2, 273, 276 ; owners, 273, 
274 ; ditches, 275 ; gate, 276 

Ministers, ejected, their noble action in 
time of plague, 287 ; influence as 
teachers on the rise of dissent, 289 

Mint marriages and baptisms, 83, 85 ; in 
public-houses, 85 ; overseers attend 
them, 85 

Monastery or Priory of St. Mary Overy, 
228 ; earliest foundation, 228 ; for 
sisters, and afterwards for Canons of 
St. Augustine, 228 ; provided lodging 
and entertainment, 229 ; perishes at 
the dissolution, 5539, 229 ; the last 
prior, 230 

Montagues, Brownes : residence in Mon- 
tague Close, 233 ; varying fortunes, 
233, 234, 236 ; Roman Catholics, 233, 

234 

Montague Close, 161, 227, 232 ; the 
cloisters of the priory, 227 ; old re- 
mains, 231, 232 ; plan and plate of, 
157 ; early state and present value, 
229 ; Gower lived here, 229 ; granted 
to Sir Anthony Browne, 230, 232 ; 
took its name from the Montagues, i.e., 
the Brownes, 232 ; Prior Linsted, or 
Fowler, his house here, 231 ; a sanc- 
tuary, 23s, 237; a refuge, 235, 237, 
238 ; Monteagle House and the Gun- 
powder Plot, 235 ; Overmans become 
the owners, 236 ; changes in the Close, 
235 ; tenements, 235 

More, Sir ,Thomas : anecdote, receives 
his death message from Sir Thomas 
Pope, 292, note 

Mortmain, Statute of, 247, note 

Neckinger, origin of name, 302 

Norden, map of Southwark and com- 
ment, 1593, xxii, xxiii ; portion, 1600, 
122, 123, note 5 

Nycolson, or Nicolson, James : glass 
painter and printer, 131 ; and King's 
College, Cambridge, 131 ; his printing 
press at St. Thomas's Hospital, 130, 
132, 134; prints Coverdale's Bible, 
133 

Olave, or Olaf, St., 238, 239; lauded 
by Thomas Carlyle, 239 ; his saintly 
character doubted, 239 ; religious cele- 
bration on the saint's day, 239, note ; 
his statue in the church, 239, 240, and 
note 9 



INDEX. 



329 



Olave, St. : the church, 238, 240 ; early 
account, 240 ; chapel and aisles, 240, 
241 ; gild of brethren and sisters, 
240, 242 ; fraternities, 241, 242 ; 
church properties, books and furniture, 
241 ; burials, 240, note 9, 242, 244 ; 
of drowned people, 244 ; Coverdale 
preaclies here, 244, 265 
Olave, St., parish: was approximately 
early Southwark, 5 ; early Lords of 
Southwark, 6, 246 ; and other dis- 
tinguished people lived here, 247, 267 ; 
remains of important buildings, 249 ; 
charities, 254 ; excellent official account, 
^254 

Olave's, St., Grammar School, 251, 257 ; 
schoolmasters, 255, 256, see Grammar 
Schools 
Oldcastle, Sir John, 62 
Osborne, Edward, afterwards Sir Edward, 
152, 153 ; Treasurer of St. Thomas's 
Hospital, 152 ; Alderman and Lord 
Mayor, 152 ; a prominent merchant 
and magistrate, 153 
Overcrowding and sickness, 223 
Overmans, owmers of Montague Close, 
236, note I ; funeral sermon of Mary 
Overman forbidden, 192, 237 ; inter- 
marriage with a Shaw (Additions) ; 
Alice Shaw Overman founds alms- 
houses by St. Saviour's Church, 192, 
237 ; these almshouses now in the 
wrong place, 237 
Overy, St. Mary : the church, see St. 
Saviour's ; an early Saxon church, 166 ; 
an Anglo-Norman of Bishop Giffard's, 
l66 ; the Warrens, Lords of Southwark, 
benefactors, 166 ; destroyed by fire in 
1208, 166 ; restored by Bishop Peter 
de Rupibus, 166 ; Gower and other 
benefactors, 167 
Paris Garden, a lay stall, 97 ; place for 
low sports, 97 ; Lord Mayor's dogs 
there, 97 ; master of the dogs at, 274 ; 
otherwise the Bears' College, 59 ; 
Manor now Christchurch parish, 97, 
note 7 
Parish churches, some at first chapels of 

abbeys and priories, 284 
Paston Letters, 43, note 9, 210, note 8 
Penance, 76, 77 ; at St. George's, 76 ; 
St. Thomas's, 76 ; St. Saviour's, 76 ; 
for church riots, 81 
Penry, John, to prison and to death, 

108, 109 
Pepper Alley and Stairs, 226 
Persecution for forms of religion, 77, 94, 



1 74 ; absurd, 262, note 7 ; not con- 
fined to any one church or people, 
264 ; Calvin's crime this way, 264, 
note S 
Pie Powder Court for markets and fairs, 
27 ; owner of market bound to have. 

Pilgrims, Bermondsey Abbey, 280 ; 
the benefits they expected, 280, 300 ; 
Chaucer's from the Tabard, 32 ; to 
Canterbury, 306 ; and the gilds, 54, 
and note 9 

Pillory, 27 

Pirates, 123, 124, 244 ; see also Rovers 

Plague, deaths from, 79, 91 ; fatal to 
clergy, 79 

Players, conflict with Bishop Gardiner, 
215 ; conflict of Field with Parson 
Sutton, 175 ; many named in the 
parish books of St. Saviour's, 180 ; 
Shakespearean players too, 180 

Playhouses, contribute to the poor, 35 ; 
early in Southwark, 215 

Plays at Southwark inns, no 

Pleasure grounds, St. Olave's, 275, 277 ; 
gardens, ponds, swans, &c., 275, 
277 

Poor working people, how they were 
lodged, 280 

Pope, Sir Thomas, early connexion with 
Bermondsey, 296 ; takes the abbey at 
the dissolution, 292, 299 ; builds his 
mansion at Bermondsey, 296 ; resides 
in Bermondsey, 1546, 296, 297 ; his 
pliable and kindly character, 292 ; 
moderates persecution, 294 ; and Sir 
Thomas More, 292, and note ; and 
Princess Elizabeth, 292 ; becomes very 
rich, 293, 294, 295, 296 ; not too par- 
ticular how, 297, 305 ; his wife 
(wives), 293, note ; appoints two of 
the rectors of Bermondsey, 296 ; 
founds a college, 293, 297 ; bequests 
and charities, 293, 294 ; dies of a 
pestilence, 297 ; burial, 298 ; portrait 
by Holbein, 298; anecdote of his 
grand-niece, "little mistress Pope," 298 
Post, penny, for Southwark, 1732, 40 ; 
in Green Dragon Court, 40 ; for 
letters and parcels, 40 
Prices, Wages, &c. : 

1276, bow and arrows, id., 55 
1309, carcase of beef, i8j-., 19, note 2 ; 
a hog, 3j. 3n'., 19, note 2 ; a sheep, 
2s., 19, note 2 
1360, a mark, 13J. 4n'., perhaps 6/. 
now, 53 



330 



INDEX. 



Prices, Wages, &c. {continued) : 
1386, knight of the shire (Chaucer), 

8j. per day, 53 
1389, cleric of the works (Chaucer), 

2s. per clay, 54 
1450, ordinary labour, 6,d. to ()d, per 

day, 119 
1456, market rates for standings, 30 

1569, market rates for standings, 25 
1460, value of church books and im- 
plements, IIS, 116 

1514, an ox, 27J. bd., 229; wages id. 

per day with food, 229 ; a lamb, 5j. , 

229 
1526, stained glass, best work, \(>d. 

per foot, 132 

1570, wages dd. to 12a'. per day, 142; 
wages and conditions of service, 
141, 142 ; Statute of Labourers, 19, 
note 2 

1571, coals, i6j-. theloadof I2quarters, 
MS. Thos. Hosp. 

1569-74, weekly payments for patients, 
140, 141 

1574, Dr. Bull, physician to Thos. 
Hosp., 20 marks, 149 

1575, oysters, loa'. half bushell, 274 ; 
hops, 50'. lb., 274 

1579, casting ditches or sewars, 275 
1594, butter, 34j?. lb., 229 

1599, watermen, \d, for "over," to 
4a'., 226 

1600, vestry, tavern bill of, 38 ; har- 
vest-man, (>d. per day, 260, note I ; 
beef and pork, \d. lb., 260, note i ; 
a I&mb, 5J-. , 260, note I 

1613, burial charges, lod. to 32;!'., 144, 
note 9 

1629, salaries, hospital sisters, 40J. per 
year ; doctor of physick, 30" ; 
apothecary, 60", including some 
"stuff"; surgeon, 36"; beadles, 
3" 6< 8", 147-149 

1640, sewar rates, 3 
18th century prison charges, 99 
Note. — All need adjustment as to rela- 
tive values. 
Prison, 91, see Gaol Fever, Marshalsea, 
King's Bench, White Lyon, Compter, 
Clink, Gate-house, &c. ; Taylor's list, 

1630, 249 ; farmed at a rent, 98 ; con- 
sequently there are charges, plunder, 
and impositions, 99 ; the hell or hole, 
100 ; tortures, 105, note 5 ; partiality 
for a consideration, 100; starvation, 99, 
107 ; broken open in riots and con- 
fusions, 103, 104 ; occupations, 107, 



note ; "the basket" for poor prisoners, 
99, 100 ; charitable relief, lOO ; relief 
of " small " debtors, 103 

Prisoners : debtors, large and small, 104 ; 
some enjoy themselves, 105 ; act for 
relief of poorer, 103, 104 ; noted, 107, 
108 {e.g. Robert Recorde, Marbeck, 
Woodman, Bishop Sandys, Sir John 
Eliot, Selden, Baxter, Bonner, Penry, 
Massinger, George Wither, &c. ) ; 
players and writers, 109. 

Processions : as shows, 32 ; to mitigate 
trouble and disease, 32, 210 ; at 
funerals, 32, see Pilgrimages, Gilds 

"Pulpits to Let," 287, 288 

Punishments, 28, see Stocks, Whipping- 
post, Pillory; curious instances of, 28, 
29, 143 ; public and brutalizing, 77 

Quakers, in the White Lyon, 93 ; will 
not go to the ordained places of religious 
worship, 93 ; indictment of, 93, 94 

Queen's Head, see Inns 

"Qui parcit Virgam edit filium," 253, 
note 9, 258 

Rainsborough, Colonel, Parliamentary 
commander in Southwark, 22 ; assaults 
and carries the Bridge Gate, 22 ; the 
Parliament thanks the people of South- 
wark for their assistance, 22 

Ram's Head, see Inns 

Red Lattice, see Inns 

Refugees, see Flemish 

Religion : persecution in its name, 77i 
94 ; changes in forms and ceremonies, 
243, 244 ; treated as vital by intolerant 
people, 243 

Religious ministrations and forms ordered 
and changed for the people, who are 
in this respect dealt with as soft clay, 
291 

Religious plays at St. Margaret's, 119 

Reynell, Sir George, Marshal of the 
Bench, 102 ; connected with Lord 
Bacon's downfall, note, 85 

Rochester House, 202 ; the inn of the 
Bishop of Rochester, 202 ; once held 
by the Prior of St. Swithin, 202 ; 
becomes tenements, 202 ; a sewer by, 2 

Rocque's Maps of London, 1746, 109 ; 
connect past with the present, 109, 
note 

Rogers, 197 ; see Bible, 197 ; cruelty of 
Sheriff Woodroffe, 151 ; chaplain to 
the "Merchant Adventurers," 153 

Roman occupation and remains, 4, 69, 
126, 204, 248; see also "Additions 
and Corrections " 



INDEX. 



33i 



Roman Catholics, executed, ^4 
Rovers, or Pirates : tried at tlie Admi- 
ralty Court, Town Hall, 270; sent to 
Marshalsea Prison, 270 ; punishments, 
271 
St. Saviour's, 159 ; parish originally 
small, named St. Mary Oveiy, or 
St. Maiy Magdalen Oveiy, little more 
than the precincts of the priory, 50, 
1 10 ; so named at the union of St. 
Maiy Oveiy's and St. Margaret's, no, 
122, 159, 160; Christchurch parish 
formed out of it, 1671, no, III; 
church, account of (Tiler's plan), 159, 
et seq. ; had been the priory church, 
1 60 ; too large and costly for a parish, 
160 ; the revenues being mostly di- 
verted, 160 ; authorities, 160, and 
note I ; Carter's careful account, 161 ; 
a fine specimen of the pointed style, 
166 ; beautiful for processions, 169 ; 
serious decay, 17th centuiy, 168 ; state 
early this century, 161, etseq. ; interest- 
ing incidents, 173, 176, 177; Hooper, 
Rogers, and others tried and con- 
demned, 174; Feckenham preaches, 
174 ; beUs, 178, 179 ; marriages, 175 ; 
burials and obsequies, 175, 176, 178, 
180, 181 ; churchyards and burial- 
places, 198, 199; burial of "dead 
men's bones," 172 ; altar screen, see 
Fox's screen ; chapels, St. Mary Mag- 
dalen, the first parish church, 162 ; re- 
moved, 162; the Lady Chapel, 168, 169; 
well restored by George Gwilt, 169 ; 
probably the retro-choir, 161 ; let to 
bakers, 172, 173 ; known as the 
Spiritual Court, 169 ; the Bishop's, why 
so named, 1 70 ; monuments, Andrewes, 
190, 191 ; Austin, 188 ; Barford, 187 ; 
Bingham, 187; a brewer, 192; Cure, 
184 ; Emerson, 183 ; Garrard, 190 ; 
Cower, see Gower; Hayman, 190; 
Humble, 185 ; a Knight Templar 
(effigy), 167 ; Lockyer, 193 ; Symons, 
187 ; a skeleton (effigy, or memento 
mori), 170 ; Trehearne, 187 
St. Saviour's Dock, 203 ; free to parish- 
ioners, 203, note 4 ; claimed by the 
bishop, 203, note 4 
St . Thomas a Watering, by the Green 
Man, Kent Road : Chaucer's pilgrims 
pass here, 55 ; a noted place of exeai- 
tion, 21, 74, 78, 109, 123 
Salutation, see Inns 

Sanctuary, at St. Thomas's, 129 ; at St. 
George's, 75 ; at St. Maiy Oveiy's, 



173; at Montague Close, 237, 238; 
general at churches, 237 ; at some 
crosses, 277 ; not abolished until time 
of James I., 134 

Sayes Court Wood, Kent Street, I, 
307 

Scholars : rules and management, 258, 
259 ; education, 259 ; punishments, 
253, note 9 

School books : ' The Ground of Arts,' 
275, 276 ; a grammar book, 275 5 
shorthand, 276 

Schoolmasters, 255, 256, 259 

Schools, see Grammar Schools : Mrs. 
Appleby's, supplementary to Grammar 
School, 259, note ; Mrs. Newcomen's, 
259 

Sellinger's Wharf named after the St. 
Leger family, 241 

Sewers, 2, 3, 275, 278 ; presentments, 2, 
124, 125 ; rates, 1518, 2, 3 ; filthy 
state, 2 ; hogs near to, often presented 
as nuisances, 2 

Smit's Alley, early notices, 244 

Southwark : early condition of locality, 
woods replete with ditches and swamps, 
1, 2 ; noble residences in early South- 
wark, 6 ; condition l6th century and 
later, 201 ; origin of name, 5 ; variety 
of names and etymology, 5 ; a refuge 
for doubtful people, 7) 8, 94 ; crime 
exceptionally in excess in Southwark, 
211; "dangerously infected," 234; 
"a nest of sectaries," 94; reflects the 
advanced opinions of the times, 95, 96 ; 
gave aid to the Parliament, 1647, 22 ; 
thanked by the Parliament, 22 ; before 
the Mayor, 3 ; granted with reserva- 
tions to the City, 8-1 1 ; not on good 
terms with the City, 8 ; gradual decline 
of connexion with the City, 1 1 

Spade, calling a spade a, 155, 201, note, 
245 ; e.g., Lowsie Meade, 3 ; Foul 
Lane, 204, and note ; Slut's Well, 204 ; 
Dirty Lane, 204 (now we go to the 
.other extreme) 

Spencer, Benjamin, minister St. Thomas's, 
192; sequestered, 192; imprisoned, 192 

Spur, see Inns 

Stained glass, 167, 180; Southwark 
celebrated for, 180 ; see Nycolson 

Stairs, St. Olave's, 244 

Statute of Mortmain, 247, note 

Stews, Bankside, attacked, 18 ; under 
regulations of the Bishop of Winchester, 
18 

Stocks, 27 



332 



INDEX. 



Stulps at London Bridge, 12, 23 ; at St. 
Margaret's, 23 

Sussex, Earl of, Lord Chamberlain, 
lives at Bermondsey, 301 ; Queen 
Elizabeth visits him, 301 ; dies here, 
301 ; burial, 301, 302 

Swamp or marsh, 2 

Sweating sickness, 146 ; see also Hos- 
pital of St. Thomas, Swetward 

Tabard or Talbot, see Chaucer, and Inns 

Taylor, the water poet, upon the carriers' 
and other inns, 35, note, 56, 57, 58 ; 
his play at tlie Hope, 58 ; lives in 
Southwark, 58 ; is a waterman, 59 ; 
a hater of " sectaries, " 80 

Temperance, a sennon preached at St. 
Saviour's before Matliew Hale, 290, 
291 ; a suggestion to zealots, 291, note 

Thomas, Church of St. : the Governors 
of the Hospital appoint the minister, 
138; squabbles connected with these 
appointments, 146; wages, 138; Queen 
Elizabeth's picture here, 1 95; a Richard 
Chaucer buried here, 127, note 3 

Thomas, Hospital of St. : see Hospital 
of St. Thomas 

Thomas, parish of the Hospital of St., 
129 ; that is, the precincts or close, 
129, 146; sanctuary, 129, 134, note 2; 
subsidy payment, 155 

Tokens, tradesmen's, 12, 59, 241, 279 ; 
sacramental, see Token-books 

Token-books, St. Saviour's, 198, note 4; 
202, 235, note 8 

Tolls, 7, 25, 26, 310 

Tyler, Wat, in Southwark, 17, iS ; 
oppression of the labour class in his 
time, 17 

Udall, see White Lyon 

Vagrants and doubtful people, 34 ; 
passed on, 34 

Vestry feasts, St. Saviour's, 38, 222, note 
8 ; St. Olave's, 37 

Vice from enforced celibacy, 230 ; loose 
state of religious houses at the disso- 
lution, 230 

Walnut Tree Alley, walnut trees, 246 

Walnut Tree Alley, 245, 246 ; house of 
Prior of Lewes here, 246, 247 ; after- 
wards Carter Street or Lane, 246 ; 
chapel here, precursor of the Taber- 
nacle, 25 1 ; inn, 247 ; owners, 247 

Warren, the Earls : great benefactors, 6 ; 
and the Cluniac monks of Bermondsey, 
6 ; Lords of Southwark, 5 j William, 
son-in-law of the Conqueror, 6 ; man- 
sion in Southwark, 6 



Water for drink : early supply, wells, 
ditches, &c., 29 

Watermen's fares, 226 

Water-works : at Bridge-foot, 22 ; at 
St. Saviour's Mill, 23 ; at Bank-end, 23 

Waverley House, 235 ; tenements, 235 

Wharfs of sewers, 3 

Whipping post, 27 ; or cross, 29 ; St. 
Thomas's Hospital, 27, 29, 138, 139 ; 
St. Saviour's churchyard, 27 

White, member for Southwark, Long 
Parliament, 81 ; chairman of committee 
for reform of preachers, 83 ; Thomas 
Carlyle upon, 83 

White Hart, see Inns 

White Lion Inn, 50 ; conditions of lease, 
Ui/iji. Hen. VIII., 50; see Inns 

White Lyon Prison, 91 ; first used, 91 ; 
situate near St. George's Church, 92 ; 
was the county gaol, 92 ; prisoners 
here, Udall, 92 ; Papists, 92, 93 ; 
Mr. Prynne's faithful servant, 93 ; 
Quakers, 93 ; prison-keepers fall out, 
93 ; Harris zealous as a man-catcher, 
93 ; Anabaptists, 94 ; 1 681, ruinous, 
94, 95 ; noted in Thomas's Hospital 
Records, 1571, 92; becomes a bride- 
well, 95 ; rebuilt as a house of correc- 
tion in St. George's Fields, 95 ; the 
new Marshalsea Prison on the site, 95 ; 
' ' a lower depth " in prison experience, 
107 

Wild plants and flowers, 1597, I 

Willoughby (Brandon), Katherine, 
Duchess of Suffolk, 213 ; a patroness 
of Latimer and the Reformers, 213 ; 
visits the prisons of Southwark, ...; 
saves her life by leaving the country 
during the reign of Mary, 213 ; her 
kindly nature, 265 ; her wit at Gardi- 
ner's expense, 213 

Winchester House, 203 ; pictures and 
plans of, 203, 204 ; the palace of the 
Bishops of Winchester, 204 ; built by 
Bishop Giffard, 204 ; Roman remains, 
204 ; site the property of the monks 
of Bermondsey, 205 ; frontage and 
stairs by the Thames, 205 ; gardens 
and park, 205 ; destructive fire of 
1 8 14, 205 ; gi-eat public entertainments 
here, 206 ; nobles entertained here, 
207 ; the library destroyed, 207 ; suc- 
cessive residents, bishops, 207, 208 ; 
to 1641, 221 ; last occupants Mr, 
Edward Dyer and Lieut. -Col. Lilbume, 
222, 223 ; becomes a prison, 222 ; 
prisoners, 222 ; sold, 222 ; restored to 



INDEX. 



333 



the See of Winchester, 223 ; a chapel, 
223 ; a workhouse for the poor, 224 ; 
burnt, 1814, 224 

Winchester, Bishops of : 

Lords of the Manor of the Clmk, 212, 
220 

Stews under their jurisdiction, 209, 
note 

Giifard, 207 ; founder of Prioiy of St. 
Maiy Overy, 207 ; built Winchester 
House, 207 

Peter de Rupibus, 207, 208 ; built 
chapel of St. Maiy Magdalen, 207, 
208 ; established St. Thomas's Hos- 
pital, 207, 208 ; a corrupt politician, 
207, 208 

William of Wykeham, 208 ; a states- 
man, 208 ; vicissitudes, 208 

Henry Beaufort, Cardinal, 209 

William Waynflete, or Waynfleet, 2IO, 
211 ; and Cade's rebellion, 210, 211; 
fond of processions, 210, 2H ; builds 
a stone bridge in Bermondsey Street, 
211 

Richard Fox, 211 ; a good bishop, 
supplanted by Wolsey, 211; erects 
the altar-screen at St. Saviour's, 

2X1 



Winchester, Bishops of (coniinued): 
Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal, 212 ; gifts 
to St. George's Gild, 212 ; Lord of 
the Manor of the CUnk, 212 
Stephen Gardiner, 212 ; often preaches 
at St. Mary Oveiy's, 212 ; brutality, 
214, 215, 217 ; cruel and astute, 
212, 213 ; a prime mover in perse- 
cution, 214; Gardiner and the 
Duchess of Suffolk, 213, 214; flouted 
by the Southwark players, 174, 215 ; 
vicissitudes, 214, 215 ; estimate of 
character, 217 ; death and splendid 
funeral, 218, 219 
Home, 219 
Thomas Cooper andMartin Marprelale, 

219, 220 
Lancelot Andrewes, 220 ; learned and 
witty, 220, 221 ; ready for Rome, 
220 ; father of Ritualism, 220 ; death 
and burial, 221 
Wizards : St. Saviour's, Simon Pem- 
broke, 177, 178 ; at St. George's, 178 
Workpeople and wages, see Prices 
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, in Southwark, 15S4, 
19, 20 ; outbreak against the Spanish 
marriage, 19 ; the cruel result, 21 
Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, see 
Winchester House 



ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 



Notice to the Reader. — This sheet should come in as 321* : it is 
printed on thinner paper, so that it may be more easily inserted in 
bound copies. I am sorry any Corrections are necessary. All the 
same, my critics without exception very highly appfove of ' Old 
Southwark.' I can do no less, therefore, than try to remove the 
little blots, and include, at the same time, some interesting Additions 
by way of bonus. For correctness and readiness of reference it 
maybe as well to make a small mark (X) at the word, in the 
current page of the text, which has especial connexion with each 
addition or correction. 



Page ix. Preface. I remarked upon the fact that the same words and names 
are often diversely speH, and that, as they are the true readings of books and 
MSS. consulted, I have hot affected to make them uniform. I own it might have 
been as well, perhaps, where the sense is given, and not the liiera scripta, to have 
uniformly used the modem spelling. I append a few as specimens : — 

Names. Browne, Brown (Montague family). Cursen, Curson, Curzon. 
Crumwell, Cromwell. Goodyer, Coodyere, Goudtyere. Waynflete, Waynfleet, 
Wainfleet. Bridges, Brigges. Heys Wharf or Hays, &c. 

Words. Marshall, Marshal. Minstrell, Minstrel. Stewes, Stews. Sewar, 
Sewer. Sadler, Saddler. Overy, Overey, Overie. Bushell, Bushel, &c. 

P. I, 1. 3. 140,000 people. This is an approximate estimate of the number of 
, people ncfw inhabiting the site of the old Borough "of Southwark. The facts are 
these. The early Borough consisted of the parishes of St. Margaret, St. Mary 
Magdalen Overy, St. Olave (which then included what is now St. John's), St. 
Thomas and St. George ; the Clink Liberty and the' Manor of Paris Garden 
(now Christ Church Parish) excepted. The parishes of Bermondsey and 
Rotherhithe were also not included. The population of the complete modem 
Borough of Southwark numbered in 1871, 208,725 ; the present estimate, 
1878, made for me at the Registrar General's Office, is 220,430. 

P. 6. Vassals, not "vassels." 

P. 22. As to the early water supply in Soiithwark, I have some more valuable 
notes. In 1617, opposition is prayed "for the stay of ^ house intended to be 
erected on London Bridge for the conveyance of water to Southwark, which will 
be to the prejudice of works (Middleton's) at Islington " ( ' Remembrancia, ' 1878, 
p. 558). What came of this objection I know not. Southwark seems to have been 
dependent upon St. Saviour's Mill and upon other local, private, and casual 
supplies ; that is, over and above the usual well and pump, which were, so to say, 
everywhere. 

P. 47. I have an old lease of water mills in Horselydown to this Mr. Jackson 
and others ; dates ranging from 1 68 1 to 1688. It recites that the mills are 



322* ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

known as of St. John of Jerusalem, and are situate in St. Olave's parish east of Mill 
Lane, and near a limekiln, — that power is given to lay down pipes into St. 
Olave's Street, — that there are leases and contracts between the brewer Cox 
and the inhabitants of the Borough of Southwark and places adjacent for the 
supply of water, — with mention of a "Mill house and a passidge under to the 
Themes for the water to com in to the pond and goo oute." This business of 
wharf, mill, and water supply, is a joint-stock of twelve equal shares, and is, so 
far as I know, the earliest prevision for a regvUar supply of water in Southwark. 

Pp. 52, 54. The birth of Chaucer is stated diversely in these two pages ; many 
authorities and tradition say he was born in 1328 or thereabout ; groundless. Dr. 
Richard Morris says. Mr. Fumivall and Dr. Morris appear, however, to provej 
conclusively that the true date of Chaucer's birth is really about 1340. In a 
deposition made by himself in 1386, in the famous trial between Lord Scrope and 
Sir Robert Grosvenor, his age is given as forty years and upward, and that he had 
borne arms for twenty-seven years. 

P. 72, note .5. 12,440 is the correct number, but, as already remarked, a few 
thousand days more or less cannot matter if the fire is to be eternal. 
P. 78. ISS3, not 1533. 

Note 5. Carmelianus was a native of Brescia ; was in communication with 
Bishop Waynflete upon the subject of education ; was Rector of St. George's, 
Southwark, 1490; Prebend of York, 1498; Archdeacon of Gloucester, 151 1 
Prebend of Loijdon, 1519. He appears to have been in the very fiiendl^ 
favour of Henry VII., and from it reaped much worldly advantage. He was i 
seeker after profitable favour, else how can we account for the following rhapsod; 
prefixed to his poem on the birth of the Prince of Wales, i486: — "Almighty God 
compassionating the miserable state of England, lacerated by civil war, convoke 
a meeting of the saints in heaven, to ask their opinions as to how the long-standin; 
dispute between the houses of York and Lancaster might be composed. Th 
saints reply that, if the Omniscient Deity cared for their counsels, no one wa 
better qualified to advise than King Henry VI., now in heaven, who knew all th 
circumstances, and they advised that he should be called upon." The advice we 
adopted. The king's spirit was summoned, and he advised the marriage of th 
Earl of Richmond and the Princess Elizabeth, so to make the two houses oni 
The advice was approved, and ordered to be carried into effect. The poem coi 
eludes calling upon the people to rejoice at the birth of the prince. A MS. < . 
Carmelianus is in the British Museum. In it is stated that he had been travellin 
about ten years ; that he came to England and found it so pleasant that 1 
resolved to remain. When he became Poet Laureate is not known. He dit 
August l8th, 1527 {see last work on Caxton by Mr. Blades, 1877). I one 
heard a sermon at the Weigh House Chapel — I think by Henry Ward Beecher- 
in which he discoursed of. public opuiion in heaven and celestial stump orato 
brought legitimately to bear upon the counsels of the Almighty. I thought it ve 
original and very American, but the idea was, it appears, as old as Carmelianus. 
P. 89, note 4. Lords' Calendars, not "Lord Calender's "; see also p. 88. 
P. 95. 1696, not 1596 ; seventh line up, are, not "is." 
P. 98. , before judges, not after. 
P. 101. Sir Willliam, dele one /. . 
P. log, note 5. Fillinham, not " Fillingham." 
P. III. Read Toulmin 5»««V,4'j. 
P. 117, 1. 6. Threepence, not " fo\irpence. " 
P. 120. Harrison, not "Harison." 

P. 133. Add, after wysdome, . and after Josue i.. Let not the boke of 
Lawe depart out of thy mouth, but exercyse thy sclfe therin day and nyghte, y' t 
mayest kepe and doe euery thynge accordynge to it that is wrytten therin. 
P. 136. 1552, not 1652. 
P. 14S, note I. The, not "his." 
P. 1 59. St. Mary Overy. The name has been explained in more than 



ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 323* 

way, e.g., St. Mary o' Ferry, or, again, St. Mary-over-re, over the water or river. 
Johnson, citing Gibson, says. Over: ii the place be upon or near a river, it 
comes from the Saxon qfre, a brink or bank." Bailey, ' Dictionary,' 1782, says, — 
"St. Mary Overy, q. d., St. Mary Overea, i. e., Mai-y, over or on the other side 
of the water." Bailey is probably mistaken. Gibson hints at the right explana- 
tion. "There was" (says John Norden, 1596) "between London and South- 
warke long time passage by ferrie, untill the Citizens caused a bridge of wood to 
be erected. ' This, with the account given by Linsted of the foundation of this 
religious house out of the profits of the ferry, will, although somewhat mythical, 
account for the belief in the former origin — St. Mary o' Ferry. In my own 
joumeyings by the pleasant banks of the Thames, when I came to a ferry and 
desired to cross, I followed what appeared to be the custom — no doubt the very 
old custom — namely, shouting as loudly as I was able the word "over," with strong 
accent on the second syllable, to make the ferryman hear. In this way the name 
of our ferryman, John Overs, may have come down to us. It is quite feasible, 
considering the way names were formerly given, that a man named John, to whom 
people were always shouting "over," should come to be John Over. Our best 
Southwark Antiquarian, Mr. George Comer, takes the name of the church to be 
'St. Mary on the bank of the river. This is more in accord with the original 
words, and much more reasonable than that it should come exclusively from the 
talk of the people on the other side — St. Mary over the water. Other similar 
names I know — Bumham Overy in Norfolk, Burton Overy in Leicestershire, the 
hamlet of Overy in Oxfordshire, all on the banks of small streams or rivers. 

Pp. 158, 161, 182. Something further must be said as to the tomb of Gower and 
thechapelof St. John. At the eastern end, north aisle of nave (see ground plan, 19), 
is shown the tomb of Gower. There are, says Carlos, many indications that here 
Was a chapel, the chapel of St. John, which Gower in his will favours, leaving 
vestments, missal, and chalice for its services, and his body there to be buried. 
Carlos says also that the name St. John's Chapel was some time or other 
assigned without authority to the vestry. If we could be quite certain that, 
in the many changes which were undoubtedly made, the tomb of Gower, at 
19, is where it was first placed, the question would be settled. The Norman 
doorway into the cloisters, at 16, might give a slight inference the other way. Be 
that as it may, the reader is now in possession of the points, and can judge for 
himself. One cannot dogmatize about it. 

Pp. 163-166. My authorities for saying Saxon as well as Anglo-Norman are 
Gwilt and others. MyfriendMr. Dollman, whohasstudied the mattermoredeeplyand 
with better qualifications, tells meitwould bemore correct to say only Anglo-Norman. 

P. 167. Mr. Dollmaii favours me with his opinion, that the expression 1273 to 
1400 would be better, as implying a somewhat continuous repair and restoratioh, 
rather than new and unconnected works. — Gower, not "Gowar." 

P. 168, note 8. Data, not "date." 

P. 171. "I Taa-ye already noticei." — These words need explanation. It will - 
be observed that the sequences are once or so altered. This became necessary in 
the final arrangement of the book ; it was then too late to alter the words. 

P. 173. The tomb, not "a tomb." 

P. 174. Read Hooper ; the learned translator of the Bible, Matthew, j 

P. 177. The date 1557 to be crossed out. 

P. 180. Inimitable, not "innumerable." 

P. 182. Gower, the Father of English'^Toetry, that is by seniority only, the 
poetic father is without doubt Chaucer. 

P. 191. Eighth line down will read betterTby leaving out that, after credit- 
ably. — Twenty-third line down, to be so, not "to have been so." 

P. 204, 1.. 6. /"roiJ courts, not "ten." The ttior of the Gentleman's Mag-azine 
is corrected in a footnote, vol. Ixxxiv., pt. 2, p. 530, col. i. 

P. 205. After the word "river " read, which with the jetty just noted may pro- 
bably imply a ford before there was any bridge, or even a ferry. 



324* ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

P. 225. Following Wilson, 'Hist. Dissenting Churches,' I erred in stating that he 
Deadman's Place burial ground was enclosed within the walls of Barclay's brewery 
at the latter end of the last century. The actual date is, of course, recorded at the 
brewery. The burial and baptismal registers of this and the Globe Alley chapel, 
both now within the brewery site, are at Somerset House. The register books 
note that Deadman's Place was a burial ground in 1698 ; the earliest actual record 
is on d. defaced stone, 1716. Mrs. Draper, of Si. Guy's Hospital, buried here 
1758. Rev. Mr. Skelton and Mr. George Clayton, noted dissenters, 1778. 
Against 1789 is a curious entry. Richard Harris of St. Saviour's. A frost 
set in so that the Thames was frozen over, and booths were erected on the 
ice. On a sudden thaw a brig broke loose and was carried through London 
Bridge, the mast bringing down some balustrades of the bridge — a stone fell on 
this man, who was "animated by a presumptuous curiosity," and killed him._ 
Another entry — 1770, Buried Mr. cruden, Eslington. This refers to the author of 
the Concordance, Mr. Alexander Cruden. A burial took place in the ground so 
late as 1837. The chapel had been pulled down in 1788, and the congregation 
removed, January 2, 1788, to their new Meeting House in Union Street, Borough. 
A birth register-book of Globe Alley Meeting House, to which Richard Baxter 
was pastor, remains, showing that the chapel had been certified at the sessions 
house, St. Margaret's Hill, in 1756. The Rev. C. Skelton, whose burial is recorded 
at Deadman's Place, writes these words in the register of baptisms, — "Ihavebeen 
at Globe Alley Meeting, 22 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days, — In all 420 
Baptisms, by me Charles Skelton, from Nov'. 3, 1755, to April 20, 1788." 
Probably he was, to use the old expression, " a painful preacher," he is so quaintly 
and curiously particular. 

P. 254, 1. 12. Of the school, after the word income. 

P. 260. With more light I find that Robert Nowell's gift was not intended as 
a continuous bequest. See " Spending the money of Robert Nowell," Towneley 
Hall MSS. The passage is as follows : — " Robert Thackwell, George Etheridge, 
John Hodlie, George Tayler, Wyll'm Adlington, Thomas Harryson, SchoUeres of 
the grammar schole of St. Savyours, xij yardes & a half at vj' the yarde ; yardes 
xij & a di " (that is, of cloth for gowns or cloaks) "iij" xv*." Robert Nowell was 
a wide benefactor, and possibly an almoner for others. 157^ he leaves vj" ij' x* 
for poor prisoners in every prison in London and South-woorke. Another time 
money to poor prisoners in the King's Bench, Marshallsey, Whyte Lyon and 
Comter, in Southwarke. 1581, poor prisoners, King's Bench, xx". Cooles to 
make them fier (for prisoners in SouthWark), xK Richard Tayller, curate of St. 
Thoms in Suthwarke, iij yardes (of cloth) at viij" the yarde. This is part of a 
bequest for gowns and money to poor ministers. To Mr. Crowley and others 
"for relief of poor p'ishes of St. Olives, Sanct Saviour's, Sancte Georges, & 
Sancte Marie Magdalens, for every, xl'." His kindness extends still further — ^to 
Henry Evatts, Steward, Thomas's Hospital, a cloak ; to Ann Bolton, wife to John, 
prisoner in the Marshallsee, xxij' iv", &c. 

P. 263. "The Conqueror brought over weavers with him," &c. One of my 
kindly critics suggests a mistake here — that I probably meant a later king. 
Frankly, I am not justified in the exact statement, nor am I in every sense wrong. 
Henry, ' History of England,' vol. vi. p. igj, on weaving, remarks, " that a great 
number of Flemings came over in the army of the Conqueror." -In 4132 baizes, 
&c., were manufactured at Norwich. The trade of weaving became, no doubt, 
more and more developed under succeeding kings, but was not thoroughly estab- 
lished here by Flemings until about 1331. Broadcloths were manufactured here 
soon after 1200, not before. Edward III. invited Flemings, weavere, fullers, 
dyers, and other like useful people. (See McCuUoch's Dictionary.) 

P. 276. "IS |." The missing figure is 3, i.e., I S3 J. 

P. 287, third line from bottom, t/iey are, not " it is." 

P. 294. Thirlsby, not "Thirelby." 







325* 

P. 306. The 
way was through 
Kent Street. Mr. 
Furnivall has fa- 
voured me with a 
cast of a woodcut 
of the road, taken 
from the best au- 
thority of the time, 
John Ogilby, His 
Ma"*" cosmogra- 
pher, 1675. I 
am able, there- 
fore, to append an 
additional ~ illus- 
tration. On the 
north of the 
Thames a cross is 
observable — St. 
Paul's Church ; 
below bridge the 
Tower is con- 
spicuous : London 
Bridge crosses the 
Thames. In some 
other like maps of 
Ogilby's South- 
warke is shown 
with but very few 
more houses than 
are here implied. 
The Southwark of 
1675 is then fairly 
before us. The 
next turning east, 
after passing the 
bridge into South- 
wark, represents 
St. Olave's, i.e. 
Tooley Street ; 
second to right in 
Tooley Street is 
Bermondsey 
Street, which, 
near its end, meets 
Long Lane ; this 
lane runs westerly 
toward the high 
road to Newing- 
ton; at the wester- 
ly end of Long 
Lane, Kent Street, 
forming the high- 
way to Kent, runs 
oif S. E. ; the 
stream called the 
Lock is shown 



326* ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

running under the Lock Bridge, which forms part of the Kent Street highway ; a cross 
streak or two between the second and third milestones show the streamlet St. 
Thomas a Watering, the first halting place of Chaucer's pilgrims. The blank 
space west of the road to Newington represents St, George s Fields ; in some of 
Ogilby's maps a windmill is shown here. 
. P. 307. After licences, was, not " were." 

P. 308, third line down. Comma before the word along, not after. 

N.B. I beg to express my great obligation to my friend Mr. T. F. Franklin, 
architect, without whose aid I could not have put forth so excellent a ground plan 
of St. Saviour's old church.